Engineering:Leucotome
A leucotome or McKenzie leucotome is a surgical instrument used for performing leucotomies (also known as lobotomy) and other forms of psychosurgery.
Invented by Canada neurosurgeon Dr. Kenneth G. McKenzie in the 1940s, the leucotome has a narrow shaft which is inserted into the brain through a hole in the skull, and then a plunger on the back of the leucotome is depressed to extend a wire loop or metal strip into the brain. The leucotome is then rotated, cutting a core of brain tissue.[1] This type was used by the Nobel prize-winning Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz.[2]
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Another, different, surgical instrument also called a leucotome was introduced by Walter Freeman for use in the transorbital lobotomy. Modeled after an ice-pick, it consisted simply of a pointed shaft. It was passed through the tear duct under the eyelid and against the top of the eyesocket. A mallet was used to drive the instrument through the thin layer of bone and into the brain along the plane of the bridge of the nose, to a depth of 5 cm. Due to incidents of breakage, a stronger but essentially identical instrument called an orbitoclast was later used.[4]
Lobotomies were commonly performed from the 1930s to the 1960s, with a few as late as the 1980s in France.[5]
See also
Notes
- ↑ "Kenneth G. McKenzie" (in en). 1954-07-01. https://www.cns.org/meetings/past-honored-guests-detail/kenneth-g-mckenzie.
- ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949" (in en-US). https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1949/moniz/article/.
- ↑ "The Museum of Medicine and Health : Leucotome" (in en-GB). https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MH-01984-00086.
- ↑ "'My Lobotomy': Howard Dully's Journey". 2005. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080.
- ↑ "La neurochirurgie fonctionnelle d'affections psychiatriques sévères" (in fr). Comité Consultatif National d'Ethique. 2002-04-25. http://www.ccne-ethique.fr/docs/fr/avis071.pdf. (French national consultative committee on ethics, opinion #71: Functional neurosurgery of severe psychiatric conditions)
External links
- A leucotome from the University of Manchester Medical School Museum
- The Nobel Foundation page on prefrontal leukotomy
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