Clinical neurology and neurosurgery
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Dec 2013
Biography Historical ArticleNeurosurgical work during the Napoleonic wars: Baron Larrey's experience.
Considered as the most famous French military surgeon, Dominique-Jean Larrey (1766-1842), who joined all the campaigns of Napoleon, wrote his memoirs and several medical articles. This paper discusses how in the Napoleonic times, Larrey dealt with neurosurgical diseases or injuries. ⋯ In his work, Larrey (and all his contemporaries) dealt essentially with "cranial" surgery, as in skull fractures where the brain could potentially have been injured by bone fragments. The time for brain surgery had not come yet.