ABSTRACT
It is well to reflect on the seminal contributions of Lars Leksell as we embrace new technology as a matter of course in the 21st century. A flurry of recent articles has appeared, for example, on the use of radiosurgery in trigeminal neuralgia. Few contemporary clinicians are aware that Leksell, in fact, pioneered this procedure in 1951, obtaining good results. He was also the first to perform intracavitary treatment of cystic craniopharyngiomas with phosphorus-32 [1]. Leksell is best known among stereotactic surgeons for developing the accurate and versatile frame that bears his name [2]. This was the result of ideas incubated under the influence of Spiegel and Wycis, with whom Leksell studied in 1947. He returned to Stockholm and furthered the already formidable reputation of the Karolinska Institute. During the next three decades, he continued to refine radiosurgery, developing the Gamma Knife with Borje Larson. His stereotactic frame was modified and updated until it became a standard neurosurgical tool. No less a luminary than Sugita felt that radiosurgery, stereotactic surgery and the operating microscope were the greatest neurosurgical technical advances of the 20th century. That Leksell pioneered two of these areas is a measure of his revolutionary influence
and serves as sobering inspiration to those who wish to follow in his footsteps.
