NEUROSURGEON SOLVED MEDICAL MYSTERIES, HELPED BUILD UCSD MEDICAL SCHOOL
It is regarded to be one of the most painful disorders known to medicine. In English literature it was called the “suicide disease” because victims would commit suicide to escape its facial pain. A disorder that has been around since the beginning of time, the cause was unknown for thousands of years.
In the early 20th century surgeons tried cutting nerves to alleviate the pain. Those surgeries failed.
In 1968, Dr. John Alksne and Dr. Peter Jannetta led a team of surgeons who tried a new strategy. Instead of focusing on nerves, they focused on blood vessels. They opened a patient’s head, found a blood vessel that was pressing against a nerve and moved it. The patient was cured. Since 1968, Alksne has performed hundreds of similar surgeries, and the procedure is now performed regularly around the world helping many thousands of patients with trigeminal neuralgia.
Alksne is a renowned neurosurgeon who has worked at UCSD School of Medicine since 1971. As a neurosurgeon, he specializes in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of disorders of the brain and nervous system, such as injuries, epilepsy, tumors, aneurysms, infections and strokes.
He has been in the forefront of advances in neuro
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surgery, pioneering new procedures, such as the surgical technique curing the “suicide disease.” Alksne also joined with Dr. Vicente Iragui to pioneer the insertion of electrodes into the brain to locate abnormalities causing epileptic seizures.
He was the first neurosurgeon to puncture an aneurysm to inject materials for its repair. Left unrepaired, an aneurysm — an abnormal bulge in a blood vessel — can rupture and cause death. Today, injection of materials is a common treatment, with scientific advances allowing injections without directly puncturing the aneurysm.
Alksne, 86, has been in the medical profession since graduating medical school 62 years ago. He decided to pursue medicine after his father had a heart attack while Alksne was in high school in the early 1950s. “They didn’t know what to do with him,” Alksne recalled, “so I decided I wanted to be a physician to take care of people. I was a goofy kid and had fun in high school. But, after seeing what happened with my father, I decided to put my head down and work toward a medical career.”
He never stopped working at his medical career until his retirement in July.
After graduating medical school in 1958, Alksne quickly developed a reputation as an innovative and competent neurosurgeon. By 1964, he was chief of neurosurgery at Harbor General Hospital at UCLA and three years later chair of Neurological Surgery at Medical College of Virginia.
Alksne’s reputation was enhanced by his work with aneurysms, epilepsy and the “suicide disease,” resulting in unsolicited offers, including one from UCSD, which he accepted.
When he arrived in San
About this series
Jan Goldsmith is a former member of the U-T Community Advisory Board. He is an attorney and mediator. He is also a former Superior Court judge, California state legislator, Poway mayor and San Diego city attorney.
Someone San Diego Should Know is a weekly column about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences, achievements, creativity or credentials. If you know of someone you believe San Diego should know, please send your idea to someone@sduniontribune.com
Diego, the medical school was just beginning. He was there for the first medical class of students. Among other things, Alksne performed the first operation in the 119-bed Thornton Hospital.
He had since been a fixture at the medical school for 49 years.
Among other positions, Alksne served as dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for Health Services. He created the Department of Neurosurgery, the Epilepsy Surgery Program and the Gene Therapy Program.
His vision and leadership
were critical to the early development of the La Jolla campus and hospital. “Its growth has been fantastic,” Alksne said, “We grew everything from ophthalmology to cardiology to a cancer center.”
Now retired in San Diego, Alksne plans to spend more time with his wife, Ofelia, four children and 10 grandchildren.
He is positive about the future of medicine, believing there will continue to be better treatments and breakthroughs with less need for surgery. Among the challenges, he said, is expanding access to quality health care.