A rare glimpse at the pioneer of modern neurosurgery and his patients

New York/Stuttgart - A new book co-published by Thieme Publishers and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons on the legacy of Harvey Cushing provides not only a stunning homage to the father of modern neurosurgery, but represents a masterful endeavor in the art of historical storytelling.

The task of telling Harvey Cushing’s story was taken on by authors Dr. Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol and Dr. Dennis D. Spencer. The authors’ research took them to the sub-basement of the Edward S. Harkness Medical School Dormitory at Yale University, where Cushing’s Brain Tumor Registry had been kept for sixty years untouched and largely unseen by the modern medical community.

“The Legacy of Harvey Cushing: Profiles of Patient Care” provides a rare glimpse into the Registry, drawing from its 2,200 case studies, some dating as early as 1887. Cohen-Gadol and Spencer engaged in the careful work of digitizing countless photographic negatives which Cushing had catalogued in chronological order. The authors then matched these photographs with the patients’ hospital records, complete with Cushing’s own operative sketches, reports at pre- and post-operative stages of patient care, postmortem reports, telegrams, and correspondence.

Neurological surgeons and neuropathologists will value the book for its clinical substance—indeed the photographs of patients, tumor and brain specimens represent some of the first documentation of the relentless course of neurological disease in the early twentieth century. Historians, artists, and photographers will appreciate the professional quality of the patients’ portraits, which not only depict disease, the results of intervention, and the patient’s course, but also together provide an intensely human face to the field of neurosurgery.

About Editors

Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol, M.D., M.Sc., is a neurosurgeon at Indianapolis Neurosurgical Group, Clarian Health Care System, Methodist Hospital, and Indiana University and Riley Hospitals. Dr. Cohen-Gadol is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dennis D. Spencer, M.D., is the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery and Chair of Neurosurgery at Yale University. Dr. Spencer is based in New Haven, Connecticut.

Cohen-Gadol / Spencer
The Legacy of Harvey Cushing
Profiles of Patient Care
A co-publication of Thieme and the
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
Thieme Publishers, Stuttgart. New York. 2007
586 pp, 815 illustrations, hardcover
ISBN 9781588903891 / 9783131478610
$129.95 / EUR 99.95




About Thieme

Thieme Publishers is part of the privately held Thieme Publishing Group. Thieme employs 850 people and maintains offices in seven cities, including New York, Beijing, Delhi, Stuttgart and three other locations in Germany. For 120 years, Thieme's high-quality books and journals have been a vital resource for students, physicians, researchers and academics. Thieme publishes 130 peer-reviewed journals and over 500 new books annually. All scientific and an increasing number of medical publications are also available online. Please visit www.thieme.com for additional information.
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