Dandy's disc

MUCH HAS BEEN written about the accomplishments of Walter E. Dandy, and he remains one of the seminal figures in neurosurgery. He is perhaps best known for his scientific contributions to our understanding of cerebrospinal fluid and pituitary gland physiology and his clinical contributions of ventriculography, cerebellopontine angle approaches for a variety of posterior fossa pathology, and the first clipping of a cerebral aneurysm. What is not as well known is that Dandy was the first to accurately describe and treat lumbar disc herniation. He published a thorough clinical, operative, and pathological description in a 1929 Archives of Surgery article, titled "Loose Cartilage from Intervertebral Disk Simulating Tumor of the Spinal Cord." His publication predates by 5 years the well-known 1934 Mixter and Barr article "Rupture of the Intervertebral Disc with Involvement of the Spinal Canal."