[75 years after Dandy, Fay and Mixter--looking back on the history of neuroendoscopy]

The first neuroendoscopic operation was done in the year 1910 by the urologically practicing doctor Victor Darwin Lespinasse (1878-1946). Lespinasse never published this procedure. He only reported the case in front of a local surgical society. Several years later (1922/23) the first endoscopic operations in the brain were published by three neurological surgeons within one year (Dandy, Fay and Mixter). This 75 year anniversary is the background for the following historical overview.