MJM Focus [MJM 1996 2:3]

COMMENTARY ON MJM FOCUS (Vol. 1, No. 2): SURGERY FOR TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY

Dear MJM:

I have recently had the privilege of reading the Fall/Winter 1995 issue of the McGill Journal of Medicine. It is a fine journal and I commend you not only for carrying it through, but also for having the idea of creating such an attractive journal by students.

I would like to comment in particular on the articles in the "MJM Focus: Surgery for Temporal Lobe Epilepsy," which are especially engaging and of high caliber. For example, the article "Role of Brain Science in the Evolution of Epilepsy Surgery" by William Feindel is an excellent review paper. It describes the history and development of epilepsy neurosurgery including the well-known "Montreal Procedure" for functional mapping of the cortex and subsequent cortical resection by Dr. Penfield and his colleagues. The cases presented in this section, including the article by Fernando Cendes entitled "Case Report: Surgical Treatment of Drug-Resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy," are also of great interest to clinicians in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery.

It is quite interesting to note that there was a medical journal run by McGill medical students in 1944 when one of Dr. Feindel's earliest articles, written as a medical student, was published. It appears that this spirit and tradition of McGill medical student scholarship has been passed on to the current generation.

It is a major feat for a medical school to have students who are willing and able to create a journal like the MJM. As a McGill medical alumnus, I look forward to the arrival of the next issue.

Sincerely,

Peter McL. Black, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Neurosurgery
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02115, USA

BIOGRAPHY

Peter McL. Black, M.D., Ph.D., is currently the Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). He is Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at both the Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Children's Hospital at Harvard. Dr. Black is also Chief of Neurosurgical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).