History of neurosurgery at Christian Medical College, Vellore: A pioneer's tale.

Abstract

The Department of Neurological Sciences at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore was the first department to start neurosurgical and neurological services in India. Jacob Chandy started the department in 1949 against several odds. He started a formal training program in neurosurgery in 1958, for the first time in India, and went on to qualify several neurosurgeons, who in turn pioneered neurosurgical departments all over India. After 1970, K V Mathai and Jacob Abraham guided the department through some difficult times when there was a severe shortage of personnel and no faculty in the neurology section. Through their commitment and hard work, they continued not only the neurosurgery service but also looked after patients with neurological disorders. Mathew J Chandy, son of Jacob Chandy, joined them in 1980 and introduced micro-neurosurgery and several other neurosurgical techniques. Training of residents in micro-neurosurgery began in the early 1980s. The last quarter of a century has been a period of rapid progress for neurosurgery at CMC. There has been an exponential rise in the number of surgeries, number of residents and number of publications. Research has always been an integral part of the activities of the department and several high impact articles have been published by the faculty and residents. The neurosurgical faculty at CMC has also contributed significantly to organized neurosurgery in India and internationally, with five of them serving as President of the Neurological Society of India, a society which had Jacob Chandy as its founder President. With this heritage, the neurosurgery section at CMC, Vellore is likely to continue to provide high quality ethical neurosurgical care to patients from all over India and overseas.