Abstract

CHICO PONCE DE LEON, Fernando. Early brain surgery (1892) for epilepsy in Mexico By Dr. Rafael Lavista. Arch. Neurocien. (Mex., D.F.) [online]. 2004, vol.9, n.4, pp.226-232. ISSN 1028-5938.

Excepting a few cases, the cerebral tumors and epilepsy surgery, begined in the second half of XIX century in the USA and European countries. This paper show the neurosurgical activity of Rafael Lavista, who in 1892 and 1894 published in Mexico his experiences on six cranial surgeries: two depressed cranial fractures with cerebral compression and three surgeries of cerebral pathology, two cystic lesion and an intraparenchymal metastatic tumor. All cases in a jacksonian epilepsy context. So, Lavista is the first surgeon that worked, in the XIX Century, this kind of pathology in Mexico and Latin-America.

Keywords : cerebral tumor surgery; epilepsy surgery; neurosurgical Mexican history.