1909 Allen Buckner Kanavel (1874-1938), a self-instructed innovator in brain, spine and peripheral nerve surgery, is first to describe the infranasal transsphenoidal approach to the pituitary gland. With his colleague, urologist Victor Lespinasse, Kanavel attempts unsuccessfully to treat hydrocephalus in two infants by coagulating the choroid plexus through a cystoscope introduced into the ventricular system.