The International ISMISS Courses

ISMISS was founded by a group of active pioneer surgeons in the field of minimal invasive and endoscopic spinal surgery. Even before its conception in 1988 in occasion of the Bruxelles meeting, several meetings focussing on this newly evolving field were held in Japan, America and Europe. So a main goal of ISMISS was to coordinate instructional activities and internatinal exchanges. In all three continents respective meetings were inaugurated in different locations. This activites shall shortly be documented in the following sections.

The 33 International Zurich ISMISS Courses for Percutaneous Endoscopic Spinal Suregery and Complementary Techniques 1987 - 2015

by Hj. Leu, Feb 2015

The regular Zurich/Switzerland instructional courses were inaugurated with a first meeting in October 1987 by Adam Schreiber and Yoshinori Suezawa at Balgrist University Clinic in Zurich Switzerland. Until November 1991, 10 courses were given, since 1988 organized by Hansjörg Leu, having one in english language and a second in german or french langage per year. Since 1992, the courses were given once a year in Nov/Dec exclusively in english language, including now also the regular annual board meeting of ISMISS. In 1995 the location was moved to Neumünster Hospital, where the courses were changed to end of January and remained so until today. In 2005 the Zurich location was moved to Bethania hospital and again another move in 2014 to Hirslanden Hospital, stepwise improving the technical facilities. Beside the presentation of up-front technologies and clinical experience by international experts, from the beginning, beside a faculty with 50-70 presenters, a special guest lecture was integrated giving a special high-light to the courses every year. The distinguished special guest lecturers were from 1987 to 2015 the following experts:

The distinguished special guest lecturers were from 1987 to 2015 the following experts:

Jan 29 2015:
Richard Fessler, M.D.
Jan 30 2014:
Gun Choi, M.D.
Jan 24 2013:
Lester F. Wilson, M.D.
Jan 26 2012:
Pil Sun Choi, M.D.
Jan 27 2011:
Gilles Dubois, M.D.
Jan 28 2010:
Munehito Yoshida, M.D.
Jan 29 2009:
Andrea Fontanella, M.D.
Jan 24 2008:
Jean Destandau, M.D.
Jan 25 2007:
Sebastian Ruetten, M.D.
Jan 26 2006:
Rudolf Bertagnoli, M.D.
Jan 27 2005:
John Chiu, M.D.
Jan 29 2004:
Lee Sang-ho, M.D.
Jan 23 2003:
De Antoni Daniel, M.D.
Jan 24 2002:
Anthony Yeung, M.D.
Jan 25 2001:
Wolfgang Rauschning, M.D.
Jan 20 2000:
Hallet Mathews, M.D.
Jan 21 1999:
Daniel Rosenthal, M.D.
Jan 22 1998:
David McCord, M.D.
Jan 23 1997:
John Regan, M.D.
Jan 25 1996:
Hallet Mathews, M.D.
Dec 1 1994:
Jürgen Krämer, M.D.
Dec 2 1993:
Henry Sherk, M.D.
Nov 26 1992:
Manohar Panjabi, M.D.
Nov 28 1991:
Raymond Roy-Camille, M.D.
Jun 27 1991:
Parviz Kambin, M.D.
Nov 29 1990:
John McCulloch, M.D.
Jun 21 1990:
Parviz Kambin, M.D.
Nov 30 1989:
Raymond Roy-Camille, M.D.
Jun 15 1989:
Sadahisa Hijikata, M.D.
Dec 1 1988:
Jan Sheppherd, M.D.
Jul 7 1988:
Wolfgang Rauschning, M.D.
Jan 28 1988:
Sadahisa Hijikata, M.D.
Oct 22 1987:
Adam Schreiber, M.D.

With this larger series of 33 courses the annual ISMISS-meetings became a wordwide recognized forum in this field. Having outgrown in recent years to a worldwide rapidely evolving society, in consequence the Board of ISMISS, it its session of Jan 29, 2015, has decided to follow in the future a triennial cycle with annual ISMISS-meeting in Asia, America and Europe. So for 2016 we expect the ISMISS annual meeting in Asia in coordination of Gun Choi, MD, Korea and Yue Zhou, MD, China.