Surgeons and Neurosurgeons as Nobel Prize Winners

Česká verzia

Authors: doc. MUDr. Ph.D. Jan Chrastina; doc. MUDr. Ph.D. Radim Jančálek; MUDr. Dušan Hrabovský; prof. MUDr. CSc. Zdeněk Novák
Authors place of work: Neurochirurgická klinika LF MU a FN U sv. Anny v Brně
Published in the journal: Čas. Lék. čes. 2016; 155: 159-162
Category: History of Medicine

Summary

Since 1901 Nobel Prize is awarded for exceptional achievements in physics, chemistry, literature, peace, economy (since 1968) and medicine or physiology. The first aim of the paper is to provide an overview of surgeons – winners of Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology. Although the prominent neurosurgeons were frequently nominated as Nobel Prize candidates, surprisingly no neurosurgeon received this prestigious award so far despite that the results of their research transgressed the relatively narrow limits of neurosurgical speciality.

The most prominent leaders in the field of neurosurgery, such as Victor Horsley, Otfrid Foerster, Walter Dandy and Harvey Cushing are discussed from the point of their nominations. The overview of the activity of the Portuguese neurologists and Nobel Prize Winter in 1949 Egas Moniz (occasionally erroneously reported as neurosurgeon) is also provided. Although his work on brain angiography has fundamentally changed the diagnostic possibilities in neurology and neurosurgery, he was eventually awarded Nobel Prize for the introduction of the currently outdated frontal lobotomy.

The fact that none of the above mentioned prominent neurosurgeons has not been recognised by Nobel Prize, may be attributed to the fact that their extensive work cannot be captured in a short summary pinpointing its groundbreaking character.

Keywords:
Nobel Prize, Neurosurgery, Victor Horsley, Harvey Cushing, Walter Dandy, Otfrid Foerster, Egas Moniz

Zdroje

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