Neurosurgery Resident University of Connecticut Farmington, Connecticut, United States
Introduction:
Introduction: Sir Rickman John Godlee (1849-1925) was widely known for performing the first documented surgery to resect a tumor from the brain. The case was performed on November 25th, 1884, on a 25-year-old farmer who presented with a left-sided Jacksonian March seizure. The case was highly publicized because the tumor was localized by Dr. Hughes Bennett and subsequently resected by Sir Godlee based on the patient’s clinical presentation and physical examination alone. Aside from this widely publicized case, little has been written about Sir Godlee. This abstract examines other contributions Sir Godlee made to neurosurgery.
Methods:
Methods: We conducted a thorough search of references on Sir Godlee using the PubMed search engine. We included scholarly articles, newspaper articles, journal entries, and surgical and neurosurgical texts.
Results:
Results: Despite wide publicity and initial surgical success, the patient who underwent the 1884 tumor resection died of a surgical wound infection one month after the surgery. This fact is not widely known. Aside from his surgical talents, Sir Godlee was known to be an outstanding anatomist who displayed exceptional skills in surgical dissection. He was known for being an excellent teacher. During his early times, Sir Godlee was deeply influenced by his uncle, Lord Joseph Lister, a renowned physician who popularized antiseptic methods. Sir Godlee was known for publishing his uncle’s biography, Lord Lister.
Conclusion :
Conclusions: A reserved, honest, and approachable man, Sir Godlee was an important figure in the pre-Cushing era. Our abstract discusses the personality and various contributions of Sir Godlee in detail, providing a fuller image of a man who was an outstanding surgeon, anatomist, writer, and teacher.
