Article
Historical evolution of the surgery of the cerebellopontine angle and the petroclival region
Historische Aspekte der Chirurgie des Kleinhirnbrückenwinkels und der petroklivalen Region
Search Medline for
Authors
Published: | May 30, 2008 |
---|
Outline
Text
Objective: To describe the major historical events that marked the development of the surgery of the posterior fossa, with special attention to the area of the cerebellopontine angle and the petroclival region.
Methods: A thorough research of the international literature was done. Old articles were compared with more recent data in order to achieve accuracy.
Results: The first description of a tumor of the cerebellopontine angle was done by the anatomist Eduard Sandifort from Leyden in 1777, and this was probably a meningioma. But it was not until 1902 that the term “cerebellopontine angle” (CPA) was introduced by Henneberg and Max Koch. The first attempt to operate a CPA tumor was done by Ernst von Bergmann from Berlin in 1890, but the patient did not survive the surgery. The first successful operation is ascribed to Sir Charles Balance from England, who successfully remove a CPA tumor in 1894.
Conclusions: The history of the surgery of the CPA is a recent one. From the first attempt of tumor removal until the modern era of microsurgery not more than 120 years have passed. The enormous difficulties posed by the beginning of the last century, and the achievements made by the pioneers have made this enterprise a rich source of lessons, from which the today’s generation of neurosurgeons can greatly profit.