"The plexus is named after the American surgeon and anatomist Oscar Vivian Batson (1894-1979) , who first described it in 1940 3. Several earlier descriptions of the venous plexus had been made however Batson's investigations of cadaveric venous injections and radiography solidified the importance of the venous plexus and its role in metastatic disease (especially prostatic malignancy spread from the veins to the vertebrae) 4."