The University of Pittsburgh Library System is pleased to announce the opening of the archival papers of Dr. Peter J. Jannetta. The collection documents the life and career of Dr. Jannetta (1932-2016), an innovator in neurosurgery who made early use of the operative microscope to work effectively on a scale not before possible. He was also an important figure at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the associated hospitals that would become the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC.).
Dr. Jannetta is most well-known for developing the surgical procedure called microvascular decompression. This procedure, and the underlying theory that various disorders could be caused by neurovascular compression, was at first met with wide skepticism among neurosurgeons. Today, microvascular decompression is widely accepted as a treatment for disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm.
Dr. Jannetta also held influential positions in large universities and hospital systems. He was chief of the division of neurosurgery at Louisiana State University from 1966 to 1971, then became chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at University of Pittsburgh from 1973 until 1997. He left the University of Pittsburgh in 2000 to become the vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Allegheny General Hospital.
His papers include drafts and published versions of his writings, documentation of his further research into potential uses of microvascular decompression, grant applications, and other materials associated with grant-funded research, alongside lab books and other records of data, which can also be found in the collection. Business records from Dr. Jannetta’s attempts at commercializing his surgical practice in the 1990s and 2000s, including many plans involving his experimental treatments for type 2 diabetes are also present.
For more information about the Peter J. Jannetta Papers, please visit the collection guide: https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3Aus-ppiu-ua90f113/viewer
Contact: Zach Brodt zlb2@pitt.edu 412-648-3148
