Henry T. Wycis
Henry T. Wycis (* 1911 in Bayonne (New Jersey) , † June 30, 1972 in Philadelphia ) was an American neurosurgeon. He was a professor at Temple University .
Wycis graduated from Grove City College, Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree and medicine from Temple University Medical School, graduating in 1938 as a valedictorian . He financed his studies through semi-professional baseball and poker. After graduating, he trained as a neurosurgeon at Temple University. Neurologist Ernest A. Spiegel was one of his teachers . With him he developed the stereotactic brain surgery and both published about it in Science in 1947.
In the same year, the first operation took place on a patient with Huntington's disease. The operation was successful. The three-dimensional map of the brain required for this was previously developed at the Spiegel laboratory, as was the stereotactic apparatus, based on the corresponding studies by Horsley and Clarke on animals with an associated stereotactic apparatus forty years earlier. Unlike Horsley and Clarke, they also used internal landmarks in the brain, rather than just external ones. They could be determined individually for each patient by means of X-ray techniques.
The technique was originally used in psychosurgery , then also in mesencephalotomy for pain treatment, pallidotomy (switching off part of the globus pallidus medialis) and other operations for movement disorders (for example in Parkinson's disease) and the treatment of epilepsy , as well as for trigeminal neuralgia and phantom pain, cystic Tumors and removal of fluids from pathological cavities. Among other things, they also tried for a long time to find the optimal place in the brain where they could start a surgical treatment of the tremor (as in Parkinson's disease). Most recently he worked on neurological techniques in the therapy of multiple sclerosis. He also conducted clinical studies for the treatment of Parkinson's with L-Dopa .
With Spiegel he organized the first international conference on stereotactic brain surgery in 1958 and both published a textbook on it.
He volunteered each July at Grenfeld Mission Hospitals in Newfoundland as a doctor and surgeon. In 1969 he left Temple University and went to St. Luke's Hospital and Children's Medical Center in Philadelphia, where he directed neurology.
He was a passionate fly fisherman, traveled extensively and worldwide, was a passionate stamp collector and known for a tendency to cross out. He married Cecelia Machesney and had two daughters.
Wycis was a corresponding member of the German, French and Scandinavian neurological societies.
Web links
- Biography with the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
- Obituary in the New York Times, July 2, 1972
Individual evidence
- ↑ mirror EA, Wycis HT, Marks M, Lee AJ. Stereotaxic apparatus for operations on the human brain. Science 1947; 106: 349-350
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wycis, Henry T. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American neurosurgeon |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bayonne, New Jersey |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 30, 1972 |
| Place of death | Philadelphia |