Bunina bodies
by S.T.Y. Ugradar and J.E. Martin
In 1961, Van Reeth and colleagues described the presence of intracellular inclusion bodies in the anterior horn cells of a patient with Pick dementia and atypical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A year later, Tat’yana Bunina, a neuropathologist from the USSR, described inclusion bodies with almost identical morphology, in the spinal cords and brain stems of two cases of familial ALS. She initially believed that they were a virus. However, electron microscopy and subsequent work involving intracerebral inoculation with material from various forms of ALS failed to demonstrate any signs of transmissibility. It is intriguing to speculate that Bunina’s original description of Bunina bodies may have been the original first clue on a path to unravelling the pathogenetic process in ALS. (Landmark Case Report: 22 July 2010) More...

Wegener’s granulomatosis and multiple cranial neuropathies
by Saahil Mehta, Sebastian Lucas, Frank Cross and David P. D’Cruz
Wegener’s granulomatosis, first described by Friedrich Wegener in 1936, is a systemic vasculitis that characteristically causes necrotizing granulomas of the respiratory tract and necrotizing cresentic glomerulonephritis. This article describes the history and modern treatment of the disease in conjunction with a clinical case. (Landmark Case Report; 10th May 2010) More...

Corning and cocaine: the advent of spinal anaesthesia
by Alex Looseley
The inception of spinal anaesthesia can be traced to James Leonard Corning, a New York neurologist who inadvertently administered cocaine spinal anaesthesia in 1885. In 1898 August Karl Gustav Bier, a German surgeon, pioneered the successful use of operative spinal anaesthesia in lower limb surgery. Early spinal anaesthesia was fraught with complications but through advances in aseptic technique, anaesthetic agents and equipment, the seminal work of Corning and Bier has evolved into a widely established anaesthetic modality. (Landmark Case Report; 15th September 2009) More...

Henri Hartmann and his operation
by Alex Hotouras
Hartmann's procedure, first described by the French surgeon Henri Albert Hartmann in 1921, is one of the most commonly performed operations. This paper examines the history behind this operation and assesses its significance in modern surgical practice. (Landmark Case Report; 13th May 2008) More...

Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy: a historical comment
by Adrian O'Sullivan

Allen Oldfather Whipple is a name that will be forever eponymously associated with pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer. This paper presents the history behind this procedure. (Landmark Case Report; 5th September 2007) More...

Sistrunk's 1920 description of thyroglossal cyst excision
by A. M. Balfour, H. M. Al-Reefy and M. G. Dilkes
In 1920 Walter Ellis Sistrunk described the classic operation of thyroglossal cyst excision including the central portion of the hyoid bone and a core of tissue around the thyroglossal tract to open into the oral cavity at the foramen caecum. We present this paper and discuss its relevance to current practice. (Landmark case report, 28 November 2006) More...

Paget's disease by Ali S. M. Jawad and J. David Perry
The Royal London Hospital, Bancroft Road, London
E1 4DG, UK. More...

The epic 1954 operation that led to one of surgery's major advances: carotid endarterectomy by John E. Connolly
University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. More...

`A Yankee dodge': the first British public demonstration of anaesthesia by S. M. Usher and S. Chieveley-Williams
Centre for Anaesthesia, Royal Free and University College Medical School , University College London. More...

Harvey Cushing and Cushing's syndrome by A B Grossman
Department of Neuroendocrinology at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. More...

Thomas Addison and his disease
by A B Grossman
Department of Neuroendocrinology at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London More...



A breakthrough in the treatment of empyema: what we have learnt 50 years on from Tillett and Sherry’s original case report
by N C Barnes, S M Benjamin
Department of Respiratory Medicine, London Chest Hospital, London, UK More...

Cardiac transplantation: since the first case report
by S M Benjamin, N C Barnes.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, London Chest Hospital, London, UK More...