William Macewen

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For people called William McEwan, see William McEwan (disambiguation).

Sir William Macewen
Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
(1896)
Cross-section of brain prepared by William Macewen, c. 1900, Hunterian Museum

Sir William Macewen,

graft surgery, the surgical treatment of hernia and of pneumonectomy (removal of the lungs
).

Career

Macewen was born near

Rothesay on the Isle of Bute
, in western Scotland in 1848.

He studied Medicine at the

anaesthesia
, Macewen became one of the most innovative surgeons of his time and was able to greatly advance modern surgical technique and improve the recovery of patients.

In 1875, he became an assistant surgeon at the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
.

He was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours for services to medicine,[3] receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year.[4]

In 1916 Macewen helped to found the

artificial limb. He trained a team of pattern-makers to manufacture them for the hospital. Macewen recruited the first matron for Erskine, Agnes Carnochan Douglas, who he had worked with in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow.[5]

Macewen died in Glasgow on 22 March 1924.[2] He lived at Garrochty on the Isle of Bute until his death and was buried nearby in the churchyard of St Blane's Church at Kingarth.

Neurosurgery

Following the work of

tumour
or lesion in the brain, by observing its effects on the side and extension of alterations in motor and sensory functions. Thus, in 1876 he diagnosed an abscess in the frontal lobe of a boy, but the family refused permission to operate. When the patient died his diagnosis and localisation were found to be correct.

In 1879 he performed the first successful intracranial surgery where the site of the lesion (a left frontal meningioma) was localized solely by the preoperative focal epileptic signs (twitching of the face and arms in the opposite side of the lesion). On the basis of these signs Macewen thought that there was good evidence of an "irritation to the lower and middle portions of the ascending convolutions…in the left frontal lobe". A trephined hole in the skull near the purported site of the lesion showed a big subdural tumour. The patient, a teenage girl, lived for eight more years, and a subsequent autopsy showed no trace of the tumour. He later used this many times to successfully operate on brain abscesses (in 1876) and hematomas and on the spine. This was a great triumph of medicine.

According to one of his biographers, "his thorough knowledge of the natural history of pyogenic diseases of the

cranial anatomy, as illustrated in his Atlas of Head Sections, were especially important in developing his successful treatment of brain abscess. The X-ray
had not yet been discovered; Macewen's diagnosis was based on clinical findings superbly illustrated by his three clinical stages of brain abscess development." (Canale, 1996).

Contributions to surgery

Macewen demonstrates his triangle to Lane, Hirschfelder, Barkan and Stillman.

One of his earliest contributions while at the Royal Infirmary, in 1877, was in orthopaedics, by means of the development of the first bone grafts, but also in knee surgery using a special instrument (Macewen's osteotome) both techniques becoming key treatments for the highly prevalent disease of rickets (caused by a lack of Vitamin D). Macewen was interested in the biology of bone and carried out a classical series of experiments on animals in order to determine how bones grow and may be repaired. He developed surgical treatments for mastoid disease and pyogenic cysts of the temporal bone and has identified an anatomical structure in this bone, the foveola suprameatica, which was named MacEwen's triangle in his honour.

His method of surgical removal of lungs became a major medical weapon in the treatment of tuberculosis and lung cancer, thus saving many patients. His name was also immortalised in Medicine in two other instances: the Macewen's operation for inguinal hernia and the Macewen's sign for hydrocephalus and brain abscess.

Another important contribution by Macewen to modern surgery was the technique of

endotracheal anaesthesia with the help of orotracheal intubation
, which he described in 1880, and still in use today.

Macewen was noted for his early and creative use of photographs for documenting patients' cases and for teaching surgery and medicine. He pioneered the use of photos of body parts and pathological specimens, as well as photos taken before, after and during treatment/surgery.

Honours

After his death, a memorial fund was set up in his name.[6] As part of the late 1970s redevelopment of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where Macewen spent most of his career, a new laboratory block was named in his honour. It opened in 1981.

Archives

The archives of Sir William Macewen are maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow[7] and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.[8]

References

  1. ^ Hunterian Museum, case notes on Macewen display
  2. ^ a b c "Archive Services Online Catalogue MS 172 Letter referring to a surgical operation". University of Dundee. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  3. ^ "The Coronation Honours". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
  4. ^ a b "No. 27494". The London Gazette. 11 November 1902. p. 7165.
  5. ^ erskine100 (12 May 2016). "The First Matron at Erskine". University of Glasgow Library Blog. Retrieved 7 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "The late Sir William MacEwen. Glasgow Memorial Fund". The Glasgow Herald. 12 February 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  7. ^ "GB 248 DC/079 - Papers of Sir William Macewen, 1848-1924, surgeon, Regius Professor of Surgery, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1892-1924". Archives Hub. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  8. ^ "GB 250 RCPSG 10 - Papers of Sir William Macewen, (1848-1924), surgeon". Archives Hub. Retrieved 6 January 2016.

Further reading

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