The treatment for cerebrovascular disease has recently drastically changed. Novel endovascular interventions have been introduced and rapidly advanced. Consequently, many cases are being treated by newly developed endovascular interventions.
We conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey covering all 3,021 members of the Japanese Society on Surgery for Cerebral Stroke and analyzed the 1,043 (34.5%) replies.
The Japan Neurosurgical Society furnished us with the official data: the numbers of neurosurgeons in Japan, neurosurgical wards and institutes, surgeries (cerebrovascular disease, others), and kinds of operable conditions. These data are from 2001 to 2010.
The numbers of new neurosurgeons have decreased during the last decade. However, the number of brain surgeries has increased, increasing the burden on neurosurgeons. Coil embolization accounted for 32% of treated unruptured cerebral aneurysms and 24% of treated ruptured cerebral aneurysms in Japan in 2010. The rate of coil embolization in the U.S. is twice that in Japan. If coil embolization increases in Japan as it has in the U.S., Japan will have to double the number of its neurointerventional specialists in the near future. However, the results of questionnaire indicated it will be difficult to obtain the required number of neurointerventional specialists in this country due to a decline in the number of training institutes.
Further discussion between the fields of cerebrovascular surgery and neuro-endovascular intervention is indispensable to developing the proper educational system in Japan for the near and long term.
