How brain surgery may have kept Napoleon from conquering Russia

History tells us that General Mikhail Kutuzov was able to repel Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, but what it doesn’t tell us, according to new research published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, is the role that a brain surgeon played in keeping the French emperor at bay.

In the study, Dr. Mark C. Preul, chair of neurosurgery research at Barrow Neurological Institute, and his colleagues said that Napoleon most likely would have been successful in his conquest of Russia had it not been for a life-saving procedure performed on Kutuzov by Jean Massot, a brain surgeon who operated on the general after bullets passed through his head twice.

Kutuzov was shot in the head in both 1774 and 1788, only to go on to best the French emperor in battle in what history portrays as a miraculous story of survival. However, Dr. Preul’s team spent two years analyzing primary sources in both France and Russia and found that Massot was a key player in events, saving the military leader using a forerunner to modern neurosurgery.

“It’s a story of how medicine changed the course of civilization,” he explained. “We…basically identify this surgeon who saved Mikhail Kutuzov…He is at the vanguard of surgical technique. He uses incredibly modern techniques that we still use today.”

Unusual tactics the result of frontal lobe injuries?

Dr. Preul’s team uncovered evidence that the first wound suffered by Kutuzov, which occurred in a battle with the Turks in Crimea in 1774, caused severe damage to the general’s frontal lobe. This caused him to behave erratically, impairing his ability to make decision but also providing some hints as to the strategy that he used to defeat Napoleon on the fields of battle.

Eye-witness accounts reported that Kutuzov’s personality changed after he suffered that injury, which led him to delay confronting Napoleon in the autumn of 1812. Instead, he ordered his men to burn Moscow, and flee to the east. The French army followed, but due to a lack of food and other supplies, they were defeated that winter, and Napoleon was forced to retreat to Paris.

“The other generals thought Kutuzov was crazy, and maybe he was,” Dr. Preul said. “The brain surgery saved Kutuzov’s life, but his brain and eye were badly injured. However ironically the healing resolution of this situation allowed him to make what turned out to be the best decision. If he had not been injured, he may well have challenged Napoleon and been defeated.”

He added that some of the details about the injuries and the surgeries performed on the general cannot be answered without a detailed medical examination, but that it was clear that Kutuzov would not have been leading his army without the efforts of the French brain surgeon.

As the researchers wrote, “Although some would say fate allowed the brilliant Russian general, who became the personification of Russian spirit and character, to survive two nearly mortal head wounds, the best neurosurgical technique of the day seems to have been overlooked as a considerable part of Kutuzov’s success.”

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Feature Image: Portrait of Napoleon. (Credit: Thinkstock)