History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Neurosurgery ; history ; Singapore

History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Neurosurgery ; history ; Singapore

History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Neurosurgery ; history ; Philately ; United States

The oral history helps researchers to fill the gap in historical documents in research on the contemporary history of medicine in Korea. More and more studies in history of contemporary medicine in Korea have come out using oral history of doctors and patients. Based upon the author's research on development of neurosurgery in late 20th century Korea, this paper discusses how to apply oral history to contemporary history of medicine, focusing on oral history of doctors in Korea. In this paper the author describes how to do and use oral history of key doctors and medical scientists in the contemporary history of medicine in Korea. The oral history can be a powerful tool to complement the written documents as following. First, from their interview, doctors and medical scientists often provide valuable information which historians cannot get from documents and written sources. As intelligent interviewees, they not only understand the purpose of research but also help actively the historian-researcher-interviewer. Second, the oral history facilitates further searches and often it leads to more findings of informants, and written and image material. More often than not, doctors and medical scientists do their own research on the topic and provide the historian with valuable historical source material from their laboratories, bedsides, family and friends. Third, interviews with medical scientists and oral material produced by doctors and medical scientists helped the researcher to understand and interpret the papers and written documents. Fourth, the subjective stories told by the medical scientists provide perspectives and historical source as narrative truth. Before a historian attempts to use the oral material as complementary historial evidence, he or she needs to cross-check the validity and of objectivity of the oral material. Oral material is produced through bidirectional intersubjective interaction between the interviewer and interviewee, and critical reflection over the relationship between the two is crucial. Especially the researcher should keep an eye on the possible bias and strive for the objectivity of the oral material with discernment and reflection, when she or he found the interviewees of doctors and medical scientists closely connected together and tied together in a web of relationship with a common interest or agenda.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Complement System Proteins ; Eye ; Friends ; History of Medicine ; Humans ; Korea ; Neurosurgery

No abstract in English.
History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Neuralgia/history/surgery ; Neurophysiology/*history ; Neurosurgery/*history ; Therapeutic Human Experimentation/ethics/*history ; United States

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was 1) to review the length of an adequate period of conservative treatment and the appropriate surgical indications for herniated lumbar disc(HLD), 2) to collate the scientific evidences on surgeries for HLD, and 3) to collect expert opinions on HLD. METHODS: We searched for articles in PubMed, the Cochrane Library and KoreaMed up to 1 October 2008, and these articles were concerned with the natural history of HDL, systemic reviews of HDL and expert opinions on HLD. We also searched for meta-analyses and randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials(RCTs or QRCTs) of surgery for HLD. We performed a meta-analysis using the Cochrane method. The survey consisting of 21 questions was delivered to all the members of the Korean Spinal Neurosurgery Society(KSNS) via E-mail. RESULTS: A total of 59 articles were included in this study. There were 16 articles concerning the period of conservative management and the surgical indications. Among the 33 articles on surgery for HLD, there were 4 meta-analyses, 27 RCTs, and 2 QRCTs. Among the 938 members of the KSNS, 72 responded to the survey. A minimum of 1 to 3 months of conservative management was the most preferred answer(58%), followed by a conservative management period of less than 1 month(33%). Percutaneous endoscopic discectomy was more preferred by the hospitals that specialized in spinetreatment than by the university hospitals(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Conservative management for a minimum of 2 weeks to 3 months is recommended for patients with tolerable pain only. The patients with neurological compromise or intolerable pain should be considered for surgery. There is strong evidence on the relative effectiveness of surgical discectomy versus chemonucleolysis versus placebo. There is no scientific evidence on the effectiveness of any other form of minimally invasive procedure.
Diskectomy ; Electronic Mail ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Expert Testimony ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc Chemolysis ; Natural History ; Neurosurgery

History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Humans ; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures ; history ; trends ; Neurosurgery ; history ; trends

China ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Neurosurgery ; history ; methods ; trends

No Abstract Available.
United States ; Surgery/education/*history ; Physiology/history ; Neurosurgery/history ; Humans ; History, 20th Century ; History, 19th Century ; Blood Pressure Determination/history ; Bacteriology/history ; Animals ; Anesthesia/history

It is not an easy task to imagine what will happen to cerebrovascular surgery in the twenty-first century, considering the tremendous developments that have occurred during the past decades. This review paper is attempted to address the present and future of cerebrovascular surgery on the basis of author's experience of cerebrovascular diseases during the past 30 years. Cerebrovascular surgery has been recognized as a subspecialty of neurosurgery that requires utmost technical challenge and precision in all of medicine. Cerebrovascular surgery has achieved much that we can proud of. However, as forward-thinking cerebrovascular surgeons, our concern isn't with past glories. They would tackle questions of natural history, scientific assessment of therapy, outcomes sciences, and molecular basis of cerebrovascular disease. They would remain at the forefront of research in stroke and brain protection, and would succeed at the integration of endovascular, radiosurgical, and pharmacological tools into a truly multidisciplinary armamentarium.
Aneurysm ; Brain ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Natural History ; Neurosurgery ; Stroke ; Vascular Malformations