The traditional education of the neurosurgeon and duce simultaneous contrast preparations of the ar­ the clinician working in related specialties is based teries and veins and thus obtain a complex photo­ on their presumed knowledge of the macroscopic graphic representation of the structures of the prep­ anatomy of the brain as traditionally taught. Most aration. neurosurgical textbooks, therefore, provide macro­ The manuscript and drawings were completed in the scopic views of sections of the operative site. The years 1974-1976 after almost two decades of neu­ literature that has accumulated in recent years on rosurgical work. The data worked out in the early the subject of microneurosurgical operations also stages (Chapter 1 in particular) were used by the follows this principle. author as the basis for teaching programmes at the For some years, however, the customary macro­ University of Giessen. Chapters 2-7, dealing with scopic representation of the anatomy of the brain the operative technical aspects, were produced after has been inadequate for the needs of the neurosur­ mid-1975 and used by the author as the basis for geon using refined modern operative techniques. microneurosurgical teaching of his colleagues at the Furthermore, despite their detailed presentation, University of Freiburg. stereotactic atlases are also insufficient for neuro­ My thanks are due to Doz. Dr. E.