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 [extract
dated 1983] Dr. Nicholas T. Zervas has been
Chief of the Neurosurgical Service from1977
(to 2000). Born in Lynn Massachusetts,
he graduated from Harvard College in 1950 and
four years later from the University of Chicago
School of Medicine. His honors thesis was based
on research with Dr. Theodore Rasmussen on differential
motor responses to stimulation of the motor cortex.
He trained as a surgical intern at New York Hospital,
Cornell Medical Center, and as an assistant resident
in neurology and neuropathology at the Montreal
Neurological Institute. At Montreal he began his
studies in vascular research, examining the effect
of corticosteroids on middle cerebral artery ligation
in the monkey. After two years of service in the
Army Medical Corps, he began his training at MGH.
During his elective year of MGH training he traveled
abroad to study stereotactic cerebral surgery
with Professor Jean Talairach and Gabor Szikla
at the Hospital Ste Anne in Paris.
Dr. Zervas spent five years at Jefferson
Medical College in Philadelphia as Assistant Professor
before returning to Massachusetts and becoming
Chief of Neurosurgery at Beth Israel Hospital
in Boston. He held that post for 10 years before
joining MGH as Chief of Neurosurgery in 1977.
At that time he was also named Professor of Surgery
at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Zervas developed a radiofrequency
procedure for transnasal stereotactic thermal
hypophysectomy to treat patients with diabetic
retinopathy, metastatic breast carcinoma, and
acromegaly. He was also active in modifying stereotactic
operations for treating disorders of movement
and carried out the first stereotactic cerebellar
ablations for Parkinson's disease. With Professor
Eric Cosman of MIT and Dr. Paul Chapman, he developed
the first telemetric intracranial pressure-monitoring
device applicable to ventricular shunting procedures.
Together with Professor Richard Wurtman of MIT
he documented, for the first time, disorders of
catecholamine metabolism resulting from cerebral
ischemia. His current interests are cerebral vasospasm
and pituitary neoplasms.
As a youth, Dr. Zervas was a serious
student of piano. He has continued his interest
in music by serving as a Trustee of the New England
Conservatory of Music, as an Overseer of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, and Chairman of the Council
on Arts and Humanities of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
In addition to numerous national
anti international committee obligation, Dr. Zervas
has served as president of the Boston Society
of Neurology and Psychiatry, and is on the editorial
boards of the Journal of Neurosurgery, Stroke,
and the Journal of Applied Neurophysiology. He
is also Historian of the Inter national Society
of Stereotactic Surgery.
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