Departmental History

The Vanderbilt Department of Surgery was established in 1925 under the leadership of Barney Brooks, M.D. At that time all aspects of surgical care, including radiology, were under the direction of this one department. With the advance of surgical knowledge and patient care, surgical specialization evolved within the department to include at first surgical services, and then more formalized division designations within the department. At Vanderbilt, neurological surgery followed this early course of development.

By the early 1950s, Neurological Surgery was one of eight divisions in the Department of Surgery. Dr. William F. Meacham, a former Chief Resident in Surgery at Vanderbilt, was appointed Chief of the Neurological Surgery Service in 1952, and in 1953 Chief of the Division and Professor of Surgery. With the assistance of Drs. Cully Cobb and Guy Owens, Neurosurgery flourished under Dr. Meacham’s supervision and became one of the busiest services in the hospital. The program expanded through the late fifties to include both laboratory and clinical investigation with studies in shunts for hydrocephalus, and basal ganglia lesions.

The Residency Program in Neurosurgery also expanded under Dr. Meacham’s direction, and increased clinical coverage when Vanderbilt Hospital affiliated with the Nashville General Hospital as well as the Thayer Veterans Administration Hospital in 1953. When Dr. Brooks retired, he was succeeded as department chairman by H. William Scott, Jr., M.D. Dr. Scott was pleased with the division and wrote the following in his annual report: “The excellent teaching, training and service program of this Division with its fine group of residents is an extremely vigorous part of the overall program of the Department of Surgery….” The excellence persisted. In 1974 seventeen of Dr. Meacham's former residents established the William F. Meacham Society to honor the physician-teacher.

In 1974-75, the Executive Faculty of the School of Medicine approved a reorganization proposal for the Department of Surgery to preserve unity and promote continuity of care among the surgical divisions, and to recognize the need for increased responsibility and autonomy in those disciplines. By this reorganization the Department of Surgery became the Section of Surgical Sciences with nine autonomous departments: General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Oral Surgery, Dentistry, Otolaryngology, Neurosurgery, Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, and Urology. The Section was headed by a Director. Each new department was to be headed by a chairman.

Dr. Meacham was appointed as Chairman of the newly defined Department of Neurological Surgery in 1975. Having supervised the development of the Neurosurgery Division and its Residency program for over twenty years, Dr. Meacham continued to provide leadership at Vanderbilt, as well as on the national level. Among his many contributions, Dr. Meacham served as Regent of the American College of Surgeons, as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and as Chairman of the Commission on Quality Education in Neurological Surgery. His honors include the Neurosurgeon Award of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery in 1974.

A decade later, after thirty years of service to the Neurological Surgery program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Meacham announced his plan to retire. A national search produced an able successor, George S. Allen , M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Neurosurgical Training Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Allen succeeded Dr. Meacham in 1984 as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery.

Dr. Allen, with able assistance from Administrative Assistant Ann Heflin, relocated the Department of Neurological Surgery offices and laboratories to the fourth floor of the T-corridor in Medical Center North. There he resumed his research on pituitary transplants. In 1985, Dr. Noel B. Tulipan, also from Johns Hopkins, joined the department faculty, and worked with Dr. Allen to accomplish the first adrenal-brain transplant for Huntington’s Disease in 1987. That same year, Dr. Allen announced the completion of the adrenal-brain project.

Dr. Allen worked together with Dr. Gerald Fenichel, Chairman of Neurology, to develop and establish the Neurological Intensive Care Unit, which opened in July, 1988. This unit filled a great need for the provision of state-of-the-art critical care to neurology and neurosurgical patients, and helped to alleviate the case load on the crowded Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

In 1993, Dr. Allen became the first holder of the Meacham Chair, established that same year by members of the William F. Meacham Society. Former residents, colleagues, and friends of Dr. Meacham provided full funding for the chair in his honor.

Within the same year, friends and former residents in the Neurosurgical Program at Vanderbilt established a lectureship to honor Dr. Cully Cobb, a member of the Vanderbilt Neurosurgical faculty since 1949. The first annual Cully Cobb Lecture was a program on “Intracranial Aneurysms: Past, Present, and Future,” presented by Dr. Nick Hopkins, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at SUNY in Buffalo, New York. The Cully Cobb lecture is presented each year at the meeting of the Meacham Society.

Dr. Allen has promoted the development of new technologies and therapies in neurosurgical treatment at Vanderbilt. In the early 1990s he worked closely with Dr. Robert Maciunas to develop the stereotactic radiosurgery program at Vanderbilt. This method of treatment benefits from advances in imaging technology to guide the delivery of radiation from multiple beams so only targeted tumor tissue receives lethal doses. He has promoted collaborative efforts between departments (Neurology, Endocrinology, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology) to unify services into a center of excellence. He has also attracted faculty members interested in advancing neurosurgical diagnosis and treatment through noninvasive, laparoscopic, and robotic surgical methods.

Other distinguished faculty to join Dr. Allen and his staff in recent years include Drs. Oran S. Aaronson, Paul D. Boone, Joseph S. Cheng, Changquing C. Kao, Peter E. Konrad, Reid C. Thompson, and Kyle D. Weaver. Their diversity of expertise, as well as the Department's strength in research and education, ensure continued success for the Vanderbilt Department of Neurological Surgery as a leader in neurosurgical patient care.