Jon de Recondo, a great Basque neurologist in exile, and a digression on a case from his doctoral thesis

J.J. Zarranz Imirizaldu
Neurosciences and History 2022;10(4):157-166

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

J.J. Zarranz Imirizaldu
Emeritus Chair of the Department of Neurosciences. Universidad del País Vasco, Lejona, Vizcaya, Spain.
Professor, Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. Jon (Juan José, Jean) de Recondo was born in Irún in 1929; in 1936, his family took exile in France after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. With great effort, he completed a degree in medicine and a residency in neurology, and eventually became head of neurology at the Sainte-Anne hospital (1982) and professor at the Cochin Port-Royal medical school at Université Paris-Descartes (1995).

Material and method. The main source of biographical data was the history book written by Jon de Recondo and his wife Anne Marie. De Recondo prepared his doctoral thesis in 1964, directed by Raymond Garcin. All neuropathological studies were conducted under the expert supervision of Jean Laprèsle, who was my own mentor. As a result of this, I was able to access a copy of Dr de Recondo’s thesis and the original histological preparations; the preparations from case 2 are reviewed in this study.

Results. During his youth, de Recondo and his family were very active in clandestine organisations seeking to maintain the cohesion and the institutions of the Basque diaspora, particularly during the Nazi occupation of France. Disappointed with the course of events in the Basque nationalist movement and the birth of the terrorist organisation ETA, from 1958 he fully dedicated his efforts to his career in neurology. De Recondo maintained good relations with Basque neurologists and with the Neurology Society of the Basque Country. He published on diverse subjects in the area of clinical neurology, and edited several successful monographs. Case 2 from his doctoral thesis was that of a 56-year-old man with initial symptoms of vertigo and falls, who progressively developed a parkinsonian syndrome with associated pyramidal signs and vertical gaze palsy, with preserved automatic/reflexive eye movements. Analysis of the histological preparations suggests that the patient presented progressive supranuclear palsy, which was described around the same time by Steele, Richardson, and Olszewski.

Discussion. Jon de Recondo’s personal and professional trajectory merit recognition by younger neurologists as an example of dedication to work and perseverance in the face of adversity. The review of case 2 from his thesis shows how excessive adherence to canonical nosological classifications can hinder the recognition of new clinical-pathological entities.

KEYWORDS

Recondo, Garcin, Laprèsle, spinocerebellar degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy

Neurosciences and History 2022;10(4):157-166