A glance at the past.

The chapter is aimed at reminding users of some early findings which are difficult to understand on the basis of currently accepted notions of the practice of GKNS. Two patients with trigeminal neuralgia and one patients who required a tractotomy achieved clinical improvement despite very low doses by modern standards. One early AVM was occluded with the dose directed simply at the feeding arteries. Patients with vestibular schwannomas suffered only temporary facial pareses despite receiving a dose to the facial nerve of 40Gy or more. It is suggested finding explanations for these unusual findings could be interesting. The chapter closes with comments about certain characteristics of published reports which could be perhaps be adjusted with benefit to all.