History and Development of Neurosurgery in Belgium

Abstract

We cannot talk about neurosurgery in Belgium without giving much credit to great anatomists and neurologists who have paved the path of neurosciences and neurosurgery. The first of these great scientists was Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), an anatomist and physician born in Brussels and considered by many historians of science as the greatest anatomist of the Renaissance, maybe the most influential in the history of medicine. He studied medicine at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, then at the Catholic University of Leuven and in the Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. In 1543 he became the first physician to Charles V. His book written in seven volumes on the structure of the human body, (De Humani Corporis Fabrica) written in Latin, was a masterpiece (1). Thoroughly describing every detail of the human anatomy did not satisfy him. He took a step further and created unmatchable quality illustrations. Andreas Vesalius was an ambitious scientist with a passion for the human body. Unlike his predecessors and contemporaries, he dared to question medical truths handed down for generations and would even dissect the corpses of the executed death row prisoners. It was during his studies at the University of Leuven that he made his first dissections. His goal: to revolutionize the field of medicine through his personal scientific work. The second influential figure was a neurologist and neuropathologist: Baron Ludo van Bogaert (1897-1989). He was one of the greatest neurologists and neuropathologists of the 20th century. Born in Antwerpen, he got his M.D. at the Universite libre de Bruxelles. Director of the(Bunge Institute) then of the (Born-Bunge Foundation) in Antwerpen, he described many cerebral illnesses, hereditary and metabolic diseases, mainly lipidoses, some of which (2) hold his name like (leucoencephalopathy subacute sclerosis). He combined neurological and neuropathological expertise. He created the World Federation of Neurological Societies of which he became the first president. He was convinced on the need to develop neurosurgery separate from general surgery and he helped many neurosurgeons to succeed in that way. Indeed, before the Second World War, neurosurgery was practiced by general surgeons, surely of great skill, being able to remove a stomach or a brain tumor, but there was no sole neurosurgeon.