History of Korean stereotactic and functional neurosurgery

ALTHOUGH FUNCTIONAL SURGERY for movement disorders did not begin in Korea until after the introduction of the stereotactic apparatus in 1958, some surgeons had already begun operating on epileptic patients, psychiatric patients, and patients with pain disorders even before the Korean War broke out in 1950. The Korean War itself was a good opportunity for the army surgeons to learn Western neurosurgery, and many operations for pain were performed during this period. Stereotactic thalamotomy and pallidotomy for parkinsonian tremor began in the late 1950s, but it was not until the 1970s that Sang-sup Chung and Chang-rak Choi devoted themselves fully to this field and actively performed these functional operations. They later established the Korean Functional and Stereotactic Society in 1990. Following the lead of these pioneers, many young neurosurgeons began to enter the field in the 1980s to become full-time functional surgeons. Currently, the society has approximately 150 registered members interested in movement disorders, pain, epilepsy, and radiosurgery and working full-time or part-time in this field.