Egas Moniz

: Tatyana Gavrilova
(1874–1955)

– 13 December 1955), known as Egas Moniz, was a Portuguese physician,

neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern psychosurgery, having developed the surgical procedure leucotomy—​known better today as lobotomy -for which he became the first Portuguese national to receive a Nobel Prize in 1949 (shared with Walter Rudolf Hess).

University of Coimbra , he later went to France for

postgraduate training in neurology and psychiatry.He returned to the University of Coimbra as Chairman of Neurology

Egas Moniz, a student in Coimbra

1902), but soon left it to enter politics as a deputy in the Portuguese parliament (1903--17), as minister of Foreign Affairs (1918) and later as Ambassador to Spain.

of radiology by becoming the father of angiography – the

precursor of angioencephalography. In 1927, Moniz administered a radiopaque contrast medium to an epileptic patient. He postulated that the visualization of blood vessels in the brain by radiological support would allow a more precise localization of brain tumors.

Contribution to medicine

Moniz.

Lima developed for the first time a surgical technique to

interrupt the nerve fibers which connect the thalamus (a relay for sensory information coming into the brain) to the prefrontal cortex (already known at the time as a brain structure involved in higher intellectual functions of the brain, and in emotions, as well).
His technique was widely used around the world in the next decade, and Moniz received many honours and international recognition, culminating with the Nobel Prize.

Prof. Egas Moniz

schizophrenic patient and subsequently confined to a wheelchair.He continued in

private practice until 1955. Moniz died from an internal haemorrhage on 13 December 1955.

professor, lecturer, speaker, politician and statesman, who bequeathed much of

his valuable heritage to our world.