LobotomyIn 1935, the first modern surgery on the frontal lobes for treatment of mental disorders was performed by Egas Moniz at Santa Marta Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. Moniz injected absolute alcohol into the frontal lobes of a mental patient through two holes drilled in the skull. Moniz later used a technique that severed neurons and led to the prefrontal lobotomy techniques of the 1940s. Moniz was later awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1949. Such radical surgery fell out of favour when psychoactive medication became available.[Image: blue spots show the operation sites] |
