Abstract

Endovascular neurosurgery, or interventional neuroradiology, has developed rapidly over the last 50 years and has posed a challenge to the established mode of open surgery. Alfred J Luessenhop, an American neurosurgeon, is credited with the first embolization of a cranial arteriovenous malformation and the first intracranial arterial catheterization to occlude an aneurysm. This review describes the life and work of the surgeon who can be regarded as the father of endovascular neurosurgery.