To Be A Neurosurgeon

The development of modern neurosurgery is set out and discussed in the book. It includes mention of Sir Victor Horsley, National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queens Square, William McEwen, Glasgow and Harvey Cushing - "the father of neurosurgery" Boston, USA. Cushing's British pupils were Norman Dott (my main mentor), Geoffrey Jefferson, Manchester and Hugh Cairns, Oxford. 


It is interesting that becoming a consultant neurosurgeon and senior lecturer in Edinburgh, on three occasions I was "headhunted" in Glasgow by Sloan Robertson, the Mount Sinai Hospital and medical school in New York, USA and the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. For particular reasons I declined these important offers. 


This is a brief outline, given more fully in the book, of some of the main disorders of the nervous system seen and requiring decisions of management by a neurosurgeon. It includes aetiology (cause), pathology (the scientific structures of disease), clinical syndromes (a combination of symptoms indicating a particular disease). Investigations, neurosurgical treatment, clinical outcome and prognosis (the effects on the patient). 


I was awarded a British Council travelling fellowship to India, and from the Burmese government an invitation to help establish the first neurosurgical department in that country. In Harvard University in Boston, USA I gave lectures including one on radioactive Yttrium90 to treat selected patients with advancing diabetic retinopathy. Visiting professor or guest lecturer in several countries including Japan, Israel, Egypt, Peru and other South and North American medical schools and universities. 


I have represented the Society of British Neurological Surgeons in the World Federation of Neurological Societies. Other involvements of medical and of non-governmental organisations include the Royal Scottish Colleges of Surgery and Medicine, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Scottish Association of Neurological Sciences (founded by myself), the International Spinal Cord Society (Editor of Spinal Cord for some some 20 years), the media (press, television and radio) and the Scottish Trust for the Physically Disabled. 


Some aspects of the philosophy and understanding and experiences of life as a neurosurgeon are provided in the Epilogue. There are a number of apt aphorisms throughout the book. Brief mention of appointments, publications, medals and prizes, membership of medical learned societies and research grants. Recommendations for further reading are provided. Also a glossary of medical terms and indices of people and subjects are included. There are a large number of illustrations.