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A giant of medicine: The legacy of neurosurgeon Peter Jannetta

A giant of medicine: The legacy of neurosurgeon Peter Jannetta

The death last week of eminent neurosurgeon Peter J. Jannetta is a reminder that Pittsburgh’s “eds and meds” economy was built over a period of decades by men and women who devoted their brilliant minds to the care of the suffering.

Dr. Jannetta, who was 84, lived in Oakland and the Ligonier area. During his residency in the 1960s, he developed a procedure to combat trigeminal neuralgia, eliminating spasms and severe pain affecting the face, eyes and ears. After a stint in Louisiana, he brought his expertise to the University of Pittsburgh and later to the Allegheny Health Network.

The late Albert Rhoton Jr., a fellow neurosurgeon, credited him with curing “generations of patients with the most devastating, agonizing pain that one can experience. He is the godfather to almost every neurosurgeon in the world.” Another colleague, Jack Wilberger, said Dr. Jannetta accelerated “the revolution” of microvascular brain surgery.

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Dr. Jannetta died the same day that the Post-Gazette published a front-page story about the legacy of another great Pittsburgh doctor, Jonas Salk, and about the current, final push to eradicate polio, a campaign that got its start in the 1950s because of the inactivated virus vaccine Salk pioneered at Pitt. Dr. Jannetta’s legacy likewise will endure in the patients he helped and the doctors he educated and through the Jannetta Center for Cranial Nerve Disorders at Allegheny General Hospital.

Anyone who has been trapped in a health insurance quagmire or inconvenienced by the Highmark-UPMC turf war can be forgiven for thinking the health care system is compassionless or greedy. Certainly, it can be both. Fortunately, the front lines have always been manned by doctors, nurses and other professionals with Dr. Jannetta’s passion for advancing patient care.

First Published: April 18, 2016, 4:00 a.m.

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