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Neuro-Ophthalmology in Japan

2012; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/wno.0b013e3182778bf1

1536-5166

Satoshi Kashii,

Medical and Biological Sciences

In 1959, 10 Japanese neuro-ophthalmologists formed the Neuro-ophthalmology Group. With the approval of the Japanese Ophthalmology Society, a scientific session on neuro-ophthalmology took place in 1964 at the annual congress of Japan Clinical Ophthalmology. This session took place every year until 1973, when it was reorganized into the Society for the Study of Neuro-ophthalmology and 2-day annual meeting was begun under the leadership of Dr Satoshi Ishikawa (Fig. 1). In 1980, the organization was renamed the Japanese Neuro-ophthalmology Society (JNOS). A formal membership system in JNOS was created in 1984, and the official journal, the Japanese Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology (Shinkei Ganka), has been published quarterly since then. In 1985, in Hakone, Japan, JNOS hosted the sixth meeting of the International Neuro-ophthalmology Society (INOS), the 14th International Pupil Colloquium, and an international workshop on extraocular muscle proprioception. These meetings attracted more than 1,000 participants from 24 countries.FIG. 1: Professor Satoshi Ishikawa.The International Scholarship (now Tsutsui-Fujino Fund) was instituted in 1992 to provide travel expenses for Asian neuro-ophthalmologists and offer them a chance to attend the annual JNOS meeting. Since then, 20 recipients from 10 Asian countries have attended the meeting. The 1st Congress of the Asian Neuro-ophthalmology Society (ASNOS) was presided over by Dr Akio Tagbuchi, and it was held in Tokyo jointly with the 40th annual meeting of JNOS in October 2002. In 2006, about 400 neuro-ophthalmologists gathered in Tokyo for the 16th INOS meeting, 3rd ASNOS meeting, and 44th JNOS meeting. Notably, a program entitled “Walsh in Asia,” modeled after the annual Frank B. Walsh Symposium, was held for the first time. It is now a part of every ASNOS meeting. Currently, there are 964 members of JNOS, including 722 ophthalmologists, 59 neurologists, 57 orthoptists, 8 otolaryngologists, and 34 basic science researchers. The current president of JNOS is Dr Masato Wakakura. There are 80 medical schools in Japan. Based on the information gathered on the Internet, 37 of them have outpatient neuro-ophthalmology services within their ophthalmology departments (Table 1). Table 2 lists the areas of research in neuro-ophthalmology that are currently ongoing in Japan.TABLE 1: Outpatient neuro-ophthalmology clinics at university hospitals in JapanTABLE 2: Current areas of neuro-ophthalmology research in Japan