The first resection of an intramedullary tumor was carried out in 1907 by Anton von Eiselsberg in Vienna.
Codivilla described the treatment of a nerve root compression due to impingement by the transverse processes of the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae in a patient with a previous cervical compression fracture at C4–C5. He removed the transverse apophysis and freed a nerve root adherent to the bony callus and obtained a complete resolution of the C5 nerve root paralysis 1).