Advances in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery 8

The last ten years has witnessed a resurgence of interest in stereotactic surgery although this has been mainly in the field of the comparatively simple stereotactic biopsy of intracranial tumours. There is also evidence of a returning interest in functional neurosurgery other than pain which has always sustained high levels of endeavour. The present work comprises selected papers from a much larger group of interesting and important communications to the European Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. They represent modern views on a wide variety of stereotactic surgical topics from internationally acclaimed experts in this field. The neurosurgeon who has little or no acquaintance with this fruitful sub-specialty will be surprised to find very broad applications of the technique which is gradually replacing many con­ ventional neurosurgical procedures. This is particularly evident in the papers on tumours but there is also a section on the treatment of vascular disease which marks an extension of neurosurgical practice. The Society has always regarded technical advances as important and some of the most recent devel­ opments appear in this book. Finally, an exciting new development of neural transplantation marks the beginning of what may be an important part of neurological surgery in the future.