Working in a Very Small Place: The Making of a Neurosurgeon

Shelton follows the career of Dr. Peter Jannetta who 20 years ago pioneered a controversial, now accepted, medical procedure his patients called a miracle and many of his peers labeled a fraud. No bibliography or index. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

A member of the brilliant, excitable, intransigent breed of surgeons who probe into the brain's "very small place," Peter Jannetta, while still a brash 34-year-old medical resident, invented a controversial but now internationally acclaimed operation to relieve excruciating trigeminal neuralgia, a cranial nerve disorder. Jannetta today heads a team of neurosurgeons at Pittsburgh's Presbyterian University Hospital, where Shelton served as head of public affairs. Based on firsthand observation and interviews with colleagues, staff and 60 recovered patients, the author relates in lay terms the stages in Jannetta's procedure and narrates dramatic episodes of the doctor in action. Against the complex background of hospital politics, this affecting, rousing account portrays the maverick, engaging surgeon's battle to acquaint the medical profession with his discoveries and achieve acceptance for his innovation.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author Shelton takes the reader inside the world of Peter Janetta, a neurosurgeon at Pittsburgh's Presbyterian University Hospital. For the past 20 years, Janetta has been developing and refining a surgical procedure known as vascular decompression. Used in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia and other afflictions, the procedure basically involves opening the skull and stuffing a bit of felt between the affected cranial nerve and the compressing vessels. This seemingly absurd solution has been demonstrated to be effective, but Janetta's battle for acceptance of the procedure by the medical community, particularly by "the grand old men of the profession," has not been easy. The author's controlled, subdued prose complements the intensity and ambition of his subject. Highly recommended.
- Laurie Bartolini, Lincoln Lib., Springfield, Ill.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.