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Major innovations in anesthesia, antisepsis and aseptic surgical techniques in the nineteenth century helped surgeons like Sir Victor A.H. Horsley (1857-1916) in England and Ernst von Bergmann in Germany (1836-1907) to perform procedures on the brain and spinal cord. The first half of the twentieth century brought further improvements of surgical techniques. Surgeons like Harvey W. Cushing (1869-1939) in the US, general surgeon Fedor Krause (1857-1937) and the neurologist Otfried Förster (1873-1941) in Germany pioneered surgery of the nervous system. Neurosurgery in Germany was further developed and established as separated surgical specialty by Wilhelm Tönnis (1898-1978) after World War II.
Modern techiques as microscopical and endoscopical, and laser surgery, localization with ultrasound, CT, MRI, computer assisted surgery, advances in anesthesia and intensive care helped to reduce the risks of neurosurgical procedures substantially and brought new indications for neurosurgery.
The first Department of Neurosurgery in Germany was established 1932 by Wilhelm Tönnis in Würzburg, the second one in 1938 by Georg Häussler (1904-1977), who trained under W. Tönnis. The Department of Neurosurgery at the University Hamburg was founded by the neurologist Heinrich Pette (1887-1964). The department was headed by Häussler until 1945 and by Rudolf Kautzky from 1945 to 1979. From 1980 to 1999 Hans-Dietrich Herrmann was Chairman of the Department.
The Department of Neurosurgery at the University Hospital Eppendorf maintains 56 adult in-patient beds including a 12-bed dedicated Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit. (As a new facility is under construction, currently reduced to six ICU beds). A new construction is underway for providing three operating rooms and one stereotactic OR including CT. Outpatient service is provided by one general and three subspecialized facilities.
About 1200 surgical procedures are performed per year. Including 375 (32%) brain tumors, 115 pituitary adenomas, 100 Aneurysms and AVM's, 123 trauma cases, and 156 spinal procedures (1995). The number of procedures is compromised by limited nursing capacity in the ICU and the OR.
The Department of Neurosurgery is committed to two central missions:
1. The development and evaluation of new therapeutic strategies for diseases demanding highly specialized expertise.
2. Pre- and postdoctoral training.
