Obituary - Dr. Carlos Eduardo Cabezas Campodónico

Dr. Carlos Eduardo Cabezas Campodónico

6th March 1934 – 8th March 2022

4 April 2022

Dear Colleagues,

On a sunny Tuesday morning of March 8th, 2022, in his beloved Hospital Mexico, in San Jose, Costa Rica, our dear Dr. Carlos Eduardo Cabezas Campodónico passed away at the age of 88 years old.  He was known for his devotion to Neurosurgery and the patients, and his love for swimming, an altruist, a gentleman, and a great teacher to us all.

His kindness to the patients and their relatives, steadiness during surgeries, and calmness in the worst-case scenario inspired several generations of neurosurgeons in Costa Rica.

Born on March 6th,1934, in San José, Costa Rica. He began his career in Medicine at UNAM in Mexico where he graduated in 1958 as General Practitioner, to then travel to La Salpetrier - Pitie University Hospital Center in France, trained under Professor Bernard Pertuiset for 5 years, after which he returned to practice in Neurosurgery in Hospital Calderon Guardia in Costa Rica in 1966, to establish later on in Hospital México where he called home, was named Chief of Neurosurgery Department from 2005 until 2012. Given his excellent surgical and academic prowess, he traveled several months every year since his return to La Salpetriere - Pitie to do surgery and to improve his surgical knowledge and skills.

Dr. Cabezas was Faculty Professor at Universidad de Costa Rica Medical School first in Grade School and then in Post Graduated Program in Neurosurgery where he was National Program´s Director until 2010.

He retired in 2020 in the midst of Covid pandemia but kept attending academic activities at the Hospital on daily basis.

An avid surgeon for vascular and skull base surgery, some of his contributions to Neurosurgery in Costa Rica are:

  • Introduction of Epilepsy Surgery in Costa Rica with trans operatory corticography (1968).
  • Cerebral Angiography via femoral access with Seldinger technique (1966)
  • Iodoventriculography for posterior fossa lesions (1966)
  • Trans sphenoidal approach for hypophyseal lesions (2000)
  • Gammaencephalography

With his passing, Costa Rica lost one of the pioneers of Neurosurgery, innovator, mentor, beloved and inspiring person.

On behalf of the Asociacion Costarricense de Neurocirugía

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