Beginnings of the Societies

Publisher Summary This chapter briefly describes the origins of various neurosurgery related associations. The International Society for Research in Stereoencephalotomy was renamed as the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (WSSFN) in 1973. The International 1973 Tokyo meeting also forced a name change in the continental branches from the American Branch to the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN) and the European branch to the European Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ESSFN). Although still affiliated with the WSSFN, the ASSFN was declared an independent society in 1973, although it was not until 1980 that the first separate meeting was held in Houston. The 1981 meeting held in Zurich was declared by the ESSFN to be a joint meeting between the WSSFN and the ESSFN and furthermore that the ESSFN was no longer a component society of the WSSFN, but an independent society. As the need to accommodate non-English-speaking and junior colleagues grew, several other national stereotactic societies were formed apart from regional societies such as Sociedad Latinoamericana de Neurocirugia Funcional y Estarerotaxia (SLANFE) and the Asian Society for Stereotactic, Functional and Computer Assisted Neurosurgery (ASSFCN). The International Neuromodulation Society (INS) was founded in 1990, because of the increasing frustration of neurosurgeons involved with “Functional Neurosurgery.” Its founding members included Lee Illis, Mario Meglio, and Daniel Galley. Currently the INS has approximately 1200 members. The North American Neuromodulation Society accounts for about 50% of the total membership of the INS and other countries outside of the USA, accounts for 50%. The International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) was first conceived in 1993 and founded in 1995 at the 5th Vienna International Workshop on Functional Electrostimulation, in Vienna, Austria.