Did Antonio Vallisneri (1661-1730) really describe frontal sinus osteoma? Unexpected insights for paleo-neuroparasitology

The role of the University of Padua medical school in the study of conjoined twins between 18th and early 19th century

The Medical School of Padua (Italy) contributed profoundly to the study of teratology. Many famous physicians and professors of medicine, such as Liceti, Vallisneri, Morgagni, and Malacarne, have studied and investigated these anomalies to better understand the causes and to find a potential explanation, often preserving the specimens for future studies. The present study highlights some historical cases of conjoined twins and a conjoined triplet preserved at the Morgagni Museum of Human Anatomy to show the development of medical theories in the teratological field between the 18th and early 19th century. This approach will provide insights into different study methods and ideas of some of the most famous scholars working in Padua at that time. The current article focuses on rare cases, both human and animal, that were encountered by physicians who worked in the Veneto area in the late 18th and early 19th century. Their detailed descriptions are not only of historical but also of contemporary dysmorphological value.

The earliest known case of frontal sinus osteoma in man

Frontal sinus osteoma is a relatively common finding in the modern clinical setting. Although, its paleopathological record is not in dispute, its presence in Ancient Egypt has never been clarified. The aim of this article is to contribute to the debate. An Egyptian mummy head from the Musée d'Éthnographie de Neuchâtel (Switzerland) was studied radiologically and the obtained evidence was contextualized in the wider frame of multidisciplinary paleopathology. A 128-slice CT scanner was used for further investigation; datasets were processed with OsiriX-64 bit (version 5.8.5), and multiplanar (MPR) and volumetric reconstructions were performed. A small hyperdense and well-defined structure, most likely an osteoma, was identified in the right frontal sinus. Frontal sinus osteoma definitely existed in Ancient Egypt. Finally, this represents the oldest case in anatomically modern humans so far reported. Clin. Anat.32:105-109, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Benito's neuralgia: the first description of the occipital neuralgia was made for Spanish doctors at the beginning of the nineteenth century

BACKGROUND

The occipital neuralgia affects 3 out of every 100,000 people and includes the neuralgia of the greater occipital nerve (GON) and the neuralgia of the minor and third occipital nerves. These nerves emerge from the posterior branches of the first cervical roots, innervate the muscles of the nape, and provide the sensitivity of the scalp. The most frequent issue is not to find causes that justify neuralgia for what is usually idiopathic. The nerve that most often causes neuralgia is the GON that is usually wrongly called Arnold's nerve, so neuralgia is also called Arnold's neuralgia.

METHODS

We have reviewed the first description of occipital neuralgia.

RESULTS

Two Spanish doctors, José Benito Lentijo and Mateo Martínez Ramos, had already described in detail the neuralgia of the GON before Arnold was born. The first clinical case of occipital neuralgia due to GON involvement was published by them in a Spanish medical journal in 1821, and they called it cervico-suboccipital neuralgia.

CONCLUSION

We claim in this article the role of these two Spanish doctors in the history of Neurology.