Handbook of clinical neurology
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Review Historical Article
Chapter 39: an historical overview of British neurology.
In the UK, neurology stemmed from general (internal) medicine rather than psychiatry. In 1886 the Neurological Society of London was founded, with Hughlings Jackson as its first President. After World War I, Kinnier Wilson was made Physician in Charge of the first independent department of neurology, which was at Westminster Hospital in London. ⋯ Before Willis the brain was a mystery, but his work laid the foundations for neurological advances. After the 17th century of William Harvey and Thomas Sydenham and the 18th century of William Heberden and Robert Whytt there followed the 19th century of James Parkinson (1755-1824), John Cooke (1756-1838), Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), Marshall Hall (1790-1856) and Bentley Todd (1809-1860). Besides its "Father," Hughlings Jackson, the giants who established the unique superiority of British neurology were Sir William Gowers, Sir David Ferrier, Kinnier Wilson, Sir Gordon Holmes and Sir Charles Sherrington.
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Review Historical Article
Chapter 30: historical aspects of the major neurological vitamin deficiency disorders: the water-soluble B vitamins.
This historical review addresses major neurological disorders associated with deficiencies of water-soluble B vitamins: beriberi, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, pellagra, neural tube defects, and subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. Beriberi: Beriberi was known for millennia in Asia, but was not described by a European until the 17th century when Brontius in the Dutch East Indies reported the progressive sensorimotor polyneuropathy. The prevalence of beriberi increased greatly in Asia with a change in the milling process for rice in the late 19th century. ⋯ Shortly thereafter the therapeutic efficacy of vitamin B(12) on subacute combined degeneration was demonstrated by West and Reisner and others. By 1955, Hodgkin determined the molecular structure of cyanocobalamin using computer-assisted x-ray crystallography, allowing complete chemical synthesis of vitamin B(12) in 1960 by an international consortium. Beginning in the late 1950s, the absorption and biochemistry of vitamin B(12) were elaborated, and several lines of evidence converged to support an autoimmune basis for pernicious anemia.
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Cranial trepanations began to be performed more than 5000 years ago in Europe and as early as the 5th century BC in the New World. It was only in the mid-19th century, however, that men of medicine began to realize that the openings in some of the unearthed ancient skulls were made by individuals skilled in surgery, and that the practice was routinely performed on the living. ⋯ However, from the start, Broca and Horsley did not agree on why the operations were performed, and the logic behind these early cranial surgeries has continued to generate debate. In Peru, where more trepanned crania have been found than anywhere else, numerous skulls have been associated with head injuries from battles, a finding of special significance for neurologists, neurosurgeons, and neurohistorians.
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A proportion of chronic headache patients become refractory to medical treatment and severely disabled. In such patients various neurostimulation methods have been proposed, ranging from invasive procedures such as deep-brain stimulation to minimally invasive ones like occipital nerve stimulation. They have been applied in single cases or small series of patients affected with varying headache disorders: cervicogenic headache, hemicrania continua, posttraumatic headache, chronic migraine, and cluster headache. ⋯ At this stage, it should be preferred as first-line invasive therapy for iCCH. Recent case reports mention the efficacy of supraorbital (SNS) and vagal (VNS) nerve stimulation. Whether these neurostimulation methods have a place in the management of iCCH patients remains to be determined.