Development of Japanese neurosurgery: from the Edo era to 1973

IN JAPAN, ALTHOUGH eminent surgeons have performed major operations while the patient is under general anesthesia since the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, neurosurgical operations were performed only sporadically for many years after 1877. The Japanese Neurological Society was formed in 1948. Independent departments of neurosurgery have been established since 1962. The Board of Neurological Surgery was founded in 1966. The Fifth International Congress of Neurological Surgery, held in Tokyo in 1973, strongly influenced young Japanese neurosurgeons.