Neurosurgery in the age of Cushing: the achievement of Leonard Lindon

Leonard Lindon was the first neurosurgeon on the staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and headed this hospital's neurosurgical service from 1931 to 1951, with an interruption from war service. Like other early neurosurgeons, Lindon began as a general surgeon. In 1929, when he was well established in his surgical practice, he took unpaid leave from his hospital duties to undertake a study tour of neurosurgical centres in Europe and North America. Lindon visited the London Hospital, where Hugh Cairns, like him, an Adelaide medical graduate and veteran of Gallipoli, was establishing a modern neurosurgical service. Lindon also visited Harvey Cushing in Boston, USA. Cushing was then at the zenith of his reputation as the master of a safe neurosurgical operative technique; he was also famous for his contributions in the neurosciences. Lindon was deeply impressed by Cushing's philosophy and his operative methods. When Lindon returned to Adelaide in 1930, he prepared a plan for a neurosurgical unit in Adelaide, and over the next 20 years, he achieved some of his aims. In this plan, Lindon gave priority to the management of head injuries as a role for neurosurgeons.