[Paul Martin (1891-1968). Pioneer of the neurosurgery in Belgium].

As the first chief of an independent neurosurgical unit founded in Belgium in 1948, Paul Martin is to be regarded as the promoter of this speciality in Belgium. After graduation from the U.L.B. medical school, he was one of the first Belgian doctors to stay for two years (1920-22) in USA in the surgical departments of Halsted and Cushing. He returned to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1929 for one year as chief of the laboratory of experimental surgery. Through his publications, we try to explain the problems of diagnosis and surgical techniques at that time in comparison with the present day situation. At the beginning, the only test available besides the neurological signs to detect intracranial lesion were plain Xrays of the skull, ophthalmologic examination and cerebrospinal fluid examination. Anaesthesiology was still unsafe and intracranial hypertension was not under control in any way. During his professional career, he witnessed the development of various techniques to localize an intracranial mass such as the ventriculography, encephalography, electroencephalography and later angiography, myelography and iodoventriculography. The introduction of the use of the electrocoagulation was one of the major advances in surgical technique during his lifetime.