The development of neurosurgical techniques: the postoperative notes and sketches of Dr. Harvey Cushing.

In the early development of American neurosurgical techniques, Harvey Cushing is often considered the founding father. As an accomplished artist and prolific writer his original operative sketches and detailed notes at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1912-1932) are now being explored as early documentation of this pioneering surgeon's development of a field. We present four brain tumor cases with his unpublished sketches and direct quotations to illustrate both the trials and tribulations of those times and Cushing's innate surgical genius.