Charles Alfred Ballance

For much of his professional life he was associated with St. Thomas' Hospital and National Hospital, Queen Square in London. He was the first president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, and was a colleague of famed surgeon Victor Horsley (1857–1916).

Ballance is remembered for his pioneer work involving nerve grafting and neurologic surgery. He is credited as being the first physician to perform a facial nerve to spinal accessory nerve anastomosis for treatment of facial palsy. He also did the first operation for complete removal of a cerebellopontine angle tumor, as well as being one of the first surgeons to perform a radical mastoidectomy with ligation of the jugular vein. Ballance is also remembered for successfully sectioning the vestibulocochlear nerve (cranial nerve VIII) as a remedy for intractable vertigo.

Ballance published over 75 articles during his career, his best known work being the 1919 "Essays on the Surgery of the Temporal bone". Later in life, he was knighted as "Sir Charles Alfred Ballance" for his many contributions made in medicine.

In 1933, he was awarded the Lister Medal, and gave the associated Lister Memorial Lecture.^[1] The lecture was titled 'On Nerve Surgery'.^[2] It was published in 1933, dedicated "To the Memory of A.C.B.",^[3] his son Alaric Charles Ballance, who had died in February of that year.^[4] The book includes details of Ballance's work at three laboratories: the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead, the laboratories of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the 'Laurelwood Laboratory' in the USA.^[3] The latter was a laboratory established at Laurelwood, the country residence of Arthur Baldwin Duel, near Pawling, New York.^[5]

Associated eponym

• Ballance's sign: Fixed dullness in the left flank, and shifting dullness in the right flank while the patient is lying on his left side. Associated with rupture of the spleen in abdominal trauma.

Notes

1. ↑ Royal College of Surgeons of England, Br Med J. 1932 May 21; 1(3724): 961.
2. ↑ Ballance, Sir Charles Alfred (1856-1936), The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, Volume 3, Page 36.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 'The Lister Memorial Lecture 1933, Sir Charles Ballance, D. C. Thomson, 1933
4. ↑ A. C. Ballance, M.A., M.B., B.CH., Br Med J. 1933 March 4; 1(3765): 394.
5. ↑ Lister Memorial Lecture, Br Med J. 1933 April 15; 1(3771): 669–670.

References

• For further information on Ballance go to the website of the Carl Ferdinand Von Graefe Institute for the History of Plastic Surgery and Related Specialties: www.histplastsurg.com
• Neurosurgical Focus by Robert H. Wilkins, M.D.
• Van de Graaf, Robert C; Ijpma Frank F A, Nicolai Jean-Philippe A (Jan 2009). "Sir Charles Alfred Ballance (1856-1936) and the introduction of facial nerve crossover anastomosis in 1895". Journal of plastic, reconstructive & aesthetic surgery : JPRAS (Netherlands) 62 (1): 43–9. doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2008.06.052. ISSN 1748-6815. PMID 18922751.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Waldman, Erik H; Lustig Lawrence R (Sep 2005). "Sir Charles Alfred Ballance: contributions to otology and neurotology". Otol. Neurotol. (United States) 26 (5): 1073–82. doi:10.1097/01.mao.0000176176.79517.8b. ISSN 1531-7129. PMID 16151361.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Stone, J L (Mar 1999). "Sir Charles Ballance: pioneer British neurological surgeon". Neurosurgery (UNITED STATES) 44 (3): 610–31; discussion 631–2. doi:10.1097/00006123-199903000-00100. ISSN 0148-396X. PMID 10069599. 
• Horwitz, N H (Dec 1998). "Charles S. Sherrington (1857-1952): historical perspective". Neurosurgery (UNITED STATES) 43 (6): 1496–7. doi:10.1097/00006123-199812000-00155. ISSN 0148-396X. PMID 9848871.