History and Current State of Global Neurosurgery in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Archaeological sources reported traces of trepanation in ancient Egypt 3000 years ago, and Papyri of that time already describedtechniques for the treatment of head trauma (1). The history of modern neurosurgery in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is recent, and thereare two significant periods to be considered.The first period can be called the pre-independence period. This period corresponded tothe 1950s, when most African nations were still colonized. During this period, neurosurgical care was delivered by surgeons originallyfrom European countries. For instance, in West Africa, the first neurosurgical operations were carried out in 1957 by a French militarymedical officer at the Hôpital Principal de Dakar. Later, in 1972, the first neurosurgical care delivery was organized in "Côte d'Ivoire"under Drs. B.Courson and C. Cournil. During the same period, neurosurgery service delivery developed in English-speaking West Africancountries. In Ghana and Nigeria, the discipline was introduced by local neurosurgeons who had trained in Europe, namely Dr. JTO.Mustaffa in 1962 (Ghana) and Dr. JL Odeku 1969 (Nigeria) (2,3,5). In Southern and Eastern Africa, the specialty was initiated by Dr. P.Cliffort in Kenya and Dr. I. Bailey in Uganda. In Zimbabwe, Dr. Lawrence Levy was the first neurosurgeon to practice the discipline (2, 3).