Department of Neurosurgery

Collection

Identifier: AC-13

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Department of Neurosurgery Records are arranged into seven series:

Note: These series contain patient information and are restricted accordingly.

Series I: Operative Notes, spans from 1948 -1995 and contains detailed records of operations performed by the department, which include pre and post operative diagnosis, the operation performed, the surgeon and assistants for the operation, the anesthesia used, indications of the procedure and the procedure.

Series II: Neurosurgical Service Records, spans from 1935-2000 (bulk 1949 – 1993) and contains records of the weekly meetings held between doctors at Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, pertaining to cases of patients, as well as records pertaining to establishing the Donald Matson Library.

Series III: Publications, contains department reports and publications authored by doctors in the department spanning from 1929 - 1999.

Series IV: Audiovisual Materials, contains film footage of operations, audio tapes, photographs and glass lantern slides from 1951 through the 1980s.

Series V: Educational Materials, is a card file system of case studies organized by disease and spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Series VI: Artifacts, contains artifacts used by Dr. Franc Ingraham of the Department of Neurosurgery.

Series VII: Illustrations, consists of Mildred Codding’s rough hand-drawn pencil sketches of her published illustrations and the actual published illustrations produced for the Atlas of Pediatric Neurosurgical Operations.

Dates

circa 1900-2000

Creator

Shillito, John, Jr., Dr. (Person)

Access

Records in this collection are restricted until 20 years from the date of creation. Records containing patient information are restricted, according to HIPAA regulations. Films and Audio tapes are in need of reformatting before they can be accessed. Please consult the Hospital Archivist for further information.

Historical Note

The Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) Department of Neurosurgery, is considered to be the birthplace of pediatric neurosurgery. It dates back to 1929, when Dr. Franc Ingraham started the Neurological service at BCH. Prior to 1929, pediatric neurosurgery patients of BCH were operated on by Dr. Harvey Cushing at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (PBBH) and transferred back to BCH for their postoperative care. As the number of pediatric brain surgery patients began to grow, Dr. Cushing recognized the need for a dedicated pediatric neurosurgery department at BCH, so he encouraged his trainee, Dr. Franc Ingraham, to start one. From this came the first pediatric neurosurgery department in the world – the Department of Neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Ingraham was able to recruit an extinguished group of neurosurgeons to train with him at BCH; Dr. Donald Matson, who started as surgical intern at the PBBH, was one of them. In 1942, Dr. Matson’s training was interrupted when he was called to service in Europe during World War II. However, he returned to BCH after his service to rejoin Dr. Ingraham. At the time, Dr. Ingraham had just been appointed Chief of the Neurosurgical Service at BCH and Chief of the Adult Neurosurgical Service at PBH. During their partnership, both doctors worked together and both made significant contributions to the field of pediatric neurosurgery; which included multiple publications on various neurological conditions. In 1954, they published the first pediatric neurosurgery textbook in the world: Neurosurgery of Infancy and Childhood. In 1957, a former resident at BCH, Dr. John Shillito, joined Drs. Ingraham and Matson on the staff at both departments, eventually, becoming Senior Associate Neurosurgeon. The three doctors worked closely together and continued to make significant contributions to both fields of adult and pediatric neurosurgery. After Dr. Ingraham’s unexpected death in 1965, Dr. Matson assumed the role of Neurosurgeon-in- Chief at PBBH and BCH. In 1968, Dr. Matson was named the first Franc D. Ingraham Professor, an endowed chair at Harvard Medical School, in honor of his mentor. Unfortunately, Dr. Matson only held this positon for a year before his sudden death, at the age of 56. In 1969. Dr. John Shillito assumed the role of Acting Chief of Neurosurgery at PBBH and BCH. The traditionally close relationship between the neurological services at the both the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Boston Children’s Hospital remains today as the departments continue to act together as a unified group of attending neurosurgeons.

Today, the Department of Neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital provides both inpatient and outpatient services. Members of the department collaborate with other departments throughout the hospital on multidisciplinary programs in pediatric brain tumors, epilepsy, skull base and craniofacial disorders, and congenital disorders of the head and neck. The department’s outpatient programs provide services to patients in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Myelodysplasia and Neurosurgical programs at Boston Children's Hospital.

The department has a very active training program. It offers residency training through the Harvard Medical School Neurosurgical Training Program, a seven-year neurosurgical residency offered in conjunction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Each year, the department also offers the Shillito Fellowship in Pediatric Neurosurgery. This one-year fellowship offers intensive training in clinical and operative handling of pediatric neurosurgical problems. In addition, the department does occasionally offer a second year of fellowship training for those interested in receiving a concentration in laboratory research.

Sources: Brigham and Women’s Department of Neurosurgery Web page

Cohen, A. R. (2014). Boston children’s hospital and the origin of pediatric neurosurgery. Childs Nervous System, 30(10), 1621-1624. doi: 10.1007/s00381-014-2535-z.