• Patrick David Kelly, David James Voce, Ahilan Sivaganesan, and John Clifton Wellons.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Electronic address: Patrick.d.kelly@vumc.org.
• World Neurosurg. 2019 Oct 1; 130: e908-e914.

BackgroundTextual analysis of obituaries provides insight into the shared values of a profession or community. Neurosurgeon obituaries are frequently published in both the medical literature and the lay press, but the content of these works has never been analyzed.MethodsUsing obituary pieces from Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery, and the New York Times, frequent terms were quantified through preliminary text analysis to derive the relative importance of concepts such as innovation, research, training and family. The sentiment of these obituaries was qualitatively reviewed to approximate perceptions of neurosurgical legacy within the profession and the general public.ResultsThirty relevant obituaries with full text available were identified in the Journal of Neurosurgery, 14 were identified in Neurosurgery, and 23 were identified in the New York Times. Both neurosurgical journals and lay press articles relied on linear narratives, with greater emphasis on professional leadership and residency training in neurosurgical journals and proportionally greater mention of family in the lay press.ConclusionsOur preliminary text analysis of neurosurgeon obituaries suggest what values are shared among the professional community and general public regarding the legacy of a neurosurgeon.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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