Dr Enrique de Areilza, a protoneurosurgeon in Bilbao

J. J. Zarranz
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(4):210-223

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

J. J. Zarranz
Emeritus Chair of the Department of Neurosciences. Universidad del País Vasco-EHU, Barakaldo, Spain.

ABSTRACT

Dr Enrique de Areilza was highly influential in Bilbao at the turn of the 20th century, as he participated in the development of several relevant institutions.

He spent most of his career at the Miners’ Hospital of Triano, where he displayed not only exceptional surgical skills but also a strong inclination for science, making very early contributions in the fields of traumatic brain injury and epilepsy surgery.

This article addresses Areilza’s pioneering contributions to neurology and neurosurgery; at that time, no neurosurgical interventions had yet been performed in the main Spanish hospitals. He was well informed about the novel interventions performed in Great Britain, France, and Germany. He had considerable neurological expertise and performed meticulous neurological examinations of his patients. He was fervently dedicated to advancing the theory of cerebral and spinal localisation, with a view to applying it to surgery. He achieved little success in the study of clinical-anatomical correlations in traumatic injuries; this, together with the poor outcomes of the first epilepsy surgeries, might explain why Areilza did not operate on tumours or other brain lesions.

KEYWORDS

Areilza, Bilbao Academy of Medical Sciences, cerebral localisation, neurosurgery, spinal cord localisation

Neurosciences and History 2024;12(4): 210-223