The contributions of W.D. Stevenson to the development of neurosurgery in Atlantic Canada

Abstract

The establishment of a neurosurgical department in Halifax in January 1948 marked the beginnings of the first dedicated neurosurgical service in Atlantic Canada. The development of neurosurgery in Halifax occurred in a receptive place and time. The Victoria General Hospital, the region's largest tertiary care centre, and the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine were in a period of growth associated with medical specialization and departmentalization, changes inspired in part by the Flexner Report of 1910. Atlantic Canadians during this period were increasingly looking to specialists for their medical care. Although this social environment encouraged the establishment of surgical specialty services, the development of neurosurgery in Halifax, as in other parts of Canada, was closely associated with the efforts of individual neurosurgeons, such as William D. Stevenson. After training with Kenneth G. McKenzie in Toronto, Stevenson was recruited to Halifax and established the first neurosurgical department in Atlantic Canada. From the outset and over his twenty-six years as Department Head at the Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Stevenson worked to maintain the department's commitment to clinical practice, medical education, and research. Although Stevenson single-handedly ran the service for several years after its inception, by the time of his retirement in 1974 the neurosurgery department had grown to include five attending staff surgeons who performed over two thousand procedures each year. This paper highlights the importance of Stevenson's contributions to the development of neurosurgery in Atlantic Canada within the context of the social and medical environment of the region.