It was not until the mid-nineteenth century, however, that the contributions of Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow, including his descriptions of the phenomena he called “embolism” and “thrombosis” as well as the origins of ischemia, changed the understanding of stroke. He suggested three main factors that conduce to venous thrombosis, which are now known as the Virchow triad. He also showed that portions of what he called a “thrombus” could detach and form an “embolus.” Thus, Virchow coined these terms to describe the pathogenesis of the disorder.

During the early 19th century, glioblastoma was considered of mesenchymal origin and was defined as a sarcoma. In 1863, Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow demonstrated its glial origin ¹⁾

It was also not until 1863 that Virchow recognized and differentiated almost all of the common types of intracranial malformations: telangiectatic venous malformations, arterial malformations, arteriovenous malformations, cystic angiomas (possibly what are now called hemangioblastomas), and transitional types of these lesions.

A article of Safavi-Abbasi et al. review the contributions of Rudolf Virchow to the current understanding of cerebrovascular pathology, and a summary of the life of this extraordinary personality in his many roles as physician, pathologist, anthropologist, ethnologist, and politician ²⁾.

The misconception of 'pachymeningitis hemorrhagica interna' was introduced by Rudolf Virchow in 1857 for chronic subdural hematoma ³⁾.