NEUROSURGEON CHARLES ELSBERG

Charles A. Elsberg, MD
President: 1923-1925

1872-1948

CHARLES A. ELSBERG was born in New York City in 1872, the son of Albert and Rebecca Elsberg. He was graduated from the City College of New York in 1890, and received his M.D. degree from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in 1893. Following internship in New York, he engaged in the practice of general surgery before becoming a neurosurgeon.

The Neurological Institute of New York, founded in 1909, was officially opened November 29, 1909. Dr. Elsberg joined its staff as Neurosurgeon on December 13, 1909, and soon became its first Chief of Neurological Surgery, a post he held until his retirement in 1937. He was also the Director of the Neurological Institute from 1927-1937. He was appointed Professor of Neurological Surgery by Columbia University in 1919, and served as a Consultant at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

With his two brothers, Dr. Elsberg established, in 1921, the Rebecca Elsberg Memorial prize, awarded annually to one or two students who overcame hardships to complete their grammar school education in New York City. He was a former president of the American Medical Association; former vice-president of the New York Academy of Medicine; and former president of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases. In May, 1947, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science at the 100th anniversary of the City College of New York, while in 1935, he was one of five alumni to be awarded the Townsend Harris Medal for post-graduate achievement from this college. He was president of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in 1923, and was, with Dr. Harvey Cushing, Charles Frazier and Ernest Sachs instrumental in its founding.

Dr. Elsberg was best known for his pioneer work on the diagnosis and surgical treatment of spinal cord tumors and wrote two classic monographs on this subject. He was one of the first to perform successful intramedullary decompressions of cord gliomas and the removal of cauda equina ependymomas (in those days called giant tumors of the cauda). Those who were taught by him will ever remember his painstaking neurological examinations that so accurately localized the level of a spinal lesion before the days of myelography, and usually led to the proper diagnosis of the nature of the lesion.

During his latter years, working with Miss Jane Stewart, whom he married in 1939, he endeavored to lateralize brain tumors by means of highly sensitive olfactory tests.

To honor the memory of this distinguished and extremely able surgeon, the New York Neurosurgical Society established an annual Elsberg Lecture. Beginning in 1950, these lectures have been given by distinguished neurosurgeons from various parts of the United States as well as abroad. He died March 18, 1948.

(From Soc.Neurological Surgeons)