Sixto Obrador (1911-1978), Spain's father of neurosurgery: his quest to raise its practice to world-class scientific standards.

Abstract

Sixto Obrador Alcalde (1911-1978) played a leading role in developing neurosurgery in Spain, where the specialty began relatively late because of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). After earning his medical degree, Obrador collaborated in neurophysiological and neuropathological studies at the Cajal Institute. There, he met Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his most distinguished protégé, Pío del Río-Hortega, who put Obrador in contact with the Spanish Board for the Expansion of Scientific Studies and Research (Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas), which allowed him to train abroad with outstanding figures in the neurological sciences. Charles Sherrington, along with Harvey Cushing disciples Hugh Cairns and Norman Dott, inspired Obrador to practice scientifically oriented nervous system surgery. After a 5-year period in Mexico, Obrador returned to Madrid in 1946. He came back to a ravaged country, where brain operations were scarce and usually performed by general surgeons. Politically connected and boundlessly keen, Obrador endeavored to have neurosurgery recognized as a separate specialty and organized leading neurosurgical departments in Madrid. He exceeded 5000 brain tumor surgeries and 400 published papers, and his international reputation was strengthened by his involvement with the Portuguese-Spanish Society of Neurosurgery, World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, and European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. Obrador should be credited with resurrecting the Cajal school, which had been broken by the Spanish Civil War, through his establishment of modern scientific-based neurosurgery.