A history of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.

Over a span of 80 years and four chairmanships, and now beginning the fifth chairmanship, the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco has held a position of renown among academic institutions serving neurological surgery. This article attributes this reputation to the qualities of the chairmen, an unforgettable group including Howard Naffziger, Edwin Boldrey, John Adams, and Charles Wilson. Some of their accomplishments are described.

The Krause operations.

Some of Fedor Krause's contributions to operative technique are reviewed and portrayed as fundamental steps in the progress of neurological surgery. The approaches he devised, the "Krause operations," are exposure of the trigeminal ganglion and root, of the cerebellopontine angle, and of the pituitary (transfrontal) and the pineal (supracerebellar) regions. This review recalls the significance of the aggregate body of Krause's work, which has not been fully appreciated except by his compatriots.

Nonoperative treatment of spinal epidural infections.

Spinal epidural infections were diagnosed before the onset of neurological deficits in six patients and treated nonsurgically. The diagnosis was based on the clinical presentation and on the results of myelography and computerized tomography scanning. Positive cultures were obtained from blood in all six patients, from aspiration of a paraspinous infection in two, and from a skin abscess and a pulmonary empyema in one patient each.