Neuropathology
The neuropathology is a field of pathology , which deals with the diseases of the central nervous system , of the meninges (meninges) and the peripheral nervous employed. Furthermore, certain muscle diseases also fall into the field of neuropathology, as well as the creation of brain banks . Within the EU , neuropathology is only recognized as an independent subject by the Federal Republic of Germany.
In contrast to related subjects such as neurology , neurosurgery and psychiatry , neuropathology is a clinical-theoretical subject , but above all it serves these three subjects as a basis for prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy, as disease morphology is a prerequisite for the necessary understanding of pathogenesis . It is common practice to discuss problems with other clinical colleagues .
History of Neuropathology
The first tentative beginnings of a neuropathology based on morphology and replacing the ancient-medieval humoral pathological ideas can be found as early as 1650. In the work of the Schaffhausen city doctor Johann Jakob Wepfer published in 1658, the morphological findings in stroke were already emphasized and in 1667 the English doctor published it Thomas Willis the Pathologiae Cerebri et Nervosi Generis Specimen . The history of modern neuropathology is very closely linked to the histories of psychiatry and neurosurgery, which flourished in the second half of the 19th century, and of course to that of one's own mother's subject and anatomy . It begins in Germany in the 19th century with the so-called "Breslauer Kreis", which in turn has its roots in Vienna and Paris , from which mainly neurologists and psychiatrists with a pronounced interest in morphology come from, who then together with members of the "Leipziger Kreis " Formed their own" Frankfurt School "around the pathologist Carl Weigert and the comparative neuroanatomist Ludwig Edinger .
What is special about neuropathology is also the extreme smallness of both the subject and the scientific object with which it is concerned. The pronounced manageability of neuropathological doctors or even the even smaller group of fully trained neuropathologists means that the history of neuropathology is very much dominated by individual people.
The names of the psychiatrists Alois Alzheimer , Korbinian Brodmann , Bernhard von Gudden , Emil Kraepelin , Franz Nissl , Walther Spielmeyer as well as the neurosurgeons Harvey Williams Cushing and Wilhelm Tönnis and the neuroscientist Klaus-Joachim Zülch are closely connected to the history of the highly specialized subject. Even Sigmund Freud was a neuropathologist, but was not as such, but as the founder of psychoanalysis famous. This shows the fruitful interaction between psychiatry on the one hand and neurosurgery on the other.
The time of National Socialism was a dark time for neuropathology; Well-known researchers and young scientists were deported or had to flee (such as the young hopeful Hans Joachim Scherer ), which inflicted a severe blow on the development of the scientific field, National Socialist madness threw - albeit indirect - neuropathological involvement in the "euthanasia" program and other medical crimes cast a shadow over neuropathology. The "3 Brothers K", actually two brothers and a cousin, who fell victim to Nazi research and whose brain preparations were used to research the rare Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease , a disease of the myelin sheaths , became particularly well known . The "classic" war damage caused by bombs or looting also affected neuropathology - like everything else.
The years of reconstruction followed after the war, during which the scientific institutes were reorganized and regenerated. The Munich Research Institute for Psychiatry was one of the first to be able to work again in its old building.
In 1948 the newly founded German Society for Neurology and Psychiatry decided to include neuroanatomists and neuropathologists in its neurology section, a decision that took into account the shift in the emphasis on neuropathology away from the previously very closely related psychiatry and towards neurology .
From October 6th to 8th, 1950, the German Society for Neuropathology was founded in Frankfurt am Main, which was renamed in 1956 with the integration of Neuroanatomy to the Association of German Neuropathologists and Neuroanatomists and finally in 1975 to the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (decision in Cologne ). In West Germany there was the first chair for neuropathology in Bonn in 1952. Around 24 years later, in 1976, the German Medical Association corresponded to the creation of a neuropathology sub-area for the specialist in pathology; a separate specialist in neuropathology was decided in 1987 by the German Medical Association. In contrast, in eastern Germany neuropathology remained closely linked to general pathology until the collapse of the GDR . Then the East German Society for Neuropathology was incorporated into the - now all-German - Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy.
The neuropathologist
Since neuropathology is recognized as an independent specialist area in Germany, there are also specialists in neuropathology in Germany who have completed full specialist training in this area. In Saudi Arabia, neuropathology has also been an independent subject since 2011. In most other countries, neuropathologists are “ordinary” pathologists who specialize in neuropathology. In Germany, too, there is a small number of pathologists who specialize in neuropathology, but only a small proportion of them are de facto medical.
The specialist in neuropathology
In order to work as a specialist in neuropathology in Germany after completing a medical degree and having a medical license , six years of further training are required, of which one year can be spent with a resident doctor:
- 2 years of basic training (so-called common trunk ) with an authorized pathologist or neuropathologist
- 4 years in neuropathology
- a clinical year in neurosurgery , neurology , neuropediatrics , neuroradiology or psychiatry can be credited
statistics
The small number of neuropathologists is increasing in the Federal Republic of Germany overall, with the relatively small proportion of pathologists specializing in neuropathology, in contrast to the proportion of specialists in neuropathology, declining. Currently (as of 2010) 122 neuropathology specialists are registered, 98 of whom are neuropathologists. The proportion of women in neuropathology in Germany, at around 24.2% in 2004, is comparatively low compared to the proportion of women in the total national medical profession of 41.7% in the same year.
Neuropathologists in Germany
Specialists in neuropathology
Pathologists with TG Neuropathology
Share of women in neuropathology
literature
- Peiffer, Johann Michael Schröder , Paulus: Neuropathology. Springer, Berlin, ISBN 3-540-41333-2 .
- J. Ulrich: Outline of Neuropathology. Springer, Berlin 1975.
- The expulsion of German neuropathologists 1933-1939. In: The neurologist. Volume 69, No. 2, February 1998 (on neuropathologists in exile, Philipp Schwartz ).
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Axel Karenberg : Neuropathology. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1044 f.
- ↑ PDF at www.bundesaerztekammer.de
- ↑ Statistics of the German Medical Association from December 31, 2004 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Professions in the mirror of statistics ( memento of the original from February 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
