W. W. Keen and the dawn of American neurosurgery

Before the turn of the century, W. W. Keen was the most celebrated neurosurgeon in the United States. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Union Army. He collaborated with Mitchell and Morehouse in clinical studies that culminated in their publishing Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries of Nerves. In 1887, he was the first surgeon in the Americas to remove a benign brain tumor. He perfected a technique for ventricular puncture, devised operations for spasmodic torticollis, microcephalus, and tic douloureaux, and introduced many European neurosurgical techniques to the United States. An astute clinician and excellent teacher, Keen had no research interests other than anatomical and pathological dissections. He published over 50 papers on neurosurgical topics, in addition to articles on numerous other subjects. Although recognized as a pioneer in neurosurgery, he is not usually considered a founder of neurosurgery in the United States because of his failure to develop the specialty further than his contemporaries in the remainder of the neurosurgical world. This failure related not to his abilities, but probably to the fact that he was elderly before it became technically possible to perform safe and effective intracranial procedures.