History of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery

The field of human stereotactic neurosurgery has just passed the half-century mark. Soon after its inception, the pioneers in the field began to meet to exchange information and ideas, which led to an international forum for stereotactic surgery. In 1973, the organization was expanded to form both the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, as well as the European and American Societies for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. Reviewing the programs of the meetings of those Societies permits one to review the nature of the information that was exchanged through the years, and, in doing so, to monitor the pulse of the field as it has developed. The first independent meeting of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery took place in Houston in 1980, at which there were 27 papers, 40% of which were on the newly emerging field of image-guided neurosurgery and the rest on classical functional neurosurgery. The five meetings since, occurring at approximately 4-year intervals, have documented the progress in epilepsy surgery, the reemergence of stereotactic surgery for movement disorders, the growth of stereotactic radiosurgery, and the genesis of frameless stereotactic techniques which have now become widespread.