International journal celebrates UF neurosurgeon’s work
An advance look at perhaps the most comprehensive textbook on brain anatomy to date is contained in a massive supplement to the October issue of the journal Neurosurgery.
The special edition, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the international journal, documents the work of University of Florida neurosurgeon Albert Rhoton Jr., M.D., in more than 400 pages of articles and graphics.
It includes information from Rhoton’s scholarly papers and anatomical studies from the past 40 years and features hundreds of color photos and medical illustrations. The text deals with the brain’s supratentorial area, which governs thinking, emotions, personality and memory.
Next year, Neurosurgery plans to combine the edition with a similar compendium of Rhoton’s work published two years ago that dealt with the posterior cranial fossa area, which governs physical functions such as breathing and swallowing, and release the package as a textbook. The editors also will distribute Rhoton’s anatomical images on CDs.
“This work on microsurgical anatomy has grown out of my personal desire to improve the care of my patients,” Rhoton said. “It represents a 40-plus-years’ attempt to gain an understanding of the anatomy and intricacies of the brain with the goal of improving the safety, gentleness and accuracy of my operations on my patients.”
Rhoton’s explorations of the brain, where fractions of an inch can mean the difference between the success or failure of a surgery, have had a major impact on his peers. As the R.D. Keene Family professor of neurological surgery at the College of Medicine and the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of UF, Rhoton has received the highest honors given by neurological organizations, including the 2001 Medal of Honor from the World Federation of Neurological Societies.
At the September meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons in Philadelphia, Rhoton autographed hundreds of advance copies of the supplement for colleagues from around the world.
“I’m surprised and gratified neurosurgeons lined up and wanted me to sign the journal,” Rhoton said. “I think it means they appreciate what I’ve done and that they received insight into their chosen life’s work, as well as a road map to avoid the hazards. Where we go, micromillimeters make a difference. This anatomy lays out where to go.”
But competence without compassion is worthless, Rhoton said. “It is a great challenge to guide patients competently and compassionately through neurosurgery. Death and darkness crowd near to our patients as we help them search for the correct path.
Neurosurgical illness threatens not only their physical but their financial security because it is so expensive and the potential for disability is so great.”
Rhoton recognized the need for a refined comprehension of the brain through microscopic anatomy, and he embarked on a four-decade journey of discovery, according to Michael L.J. Apuzzo, editor of Neurosurgery.
“This work stands as a truly remarkable achievement and one of the most important contributions by a single individual during our neurosurgical time and indeed in the entire history of the specialty,” Apuzzo wrote in a preface to the supplement.
Rhoton worked evenings and weekends over the past four years to update his papers on brain anatomy and new surgical techniques for the journal. The work reflects the best of his career in exploring the complex structures of nerves and arteries that enable the brain to think, plan and dream.
“People often say we’ve accomplished all there is, but we keep doing more, finding more,” Rhoton said. “Neuroscience is unique. We actually see and touch the brain. Each advance redefines what we do. And applying those advances requires a redefinition of anatomy.”
Included in the supplement are dozens of full-color graphics by David Peace and Robin Gilmore, UF medical illustrators who have worked with Rhoton for more than two decades. Most of Rhoton’s neuroanatomical studies have been conducted at UF over the past 30 years.