The 16th International Neuro-ophthalmology Society (INOS) Meeting was held at the Zojoji Temple in Tokyo, Japan, from November 28th to December 1st of 2006. The Zojoji Temple is the main temple of the Jodo-shu, which means Pure Land Sect. The history of the temple goes back to 1393. In 1598, Zojoji was relocated to the present area, and became the family temple of the Tokugawa Shogunate. During that time, its precincts covered an area of 826,000 square meters. And it was within these historic settings, that very constructive and valuable discussions, which covered a variety of neuro-ophthalmology topics, took place.
A total of 610 participants from 31 countries, including honorary meeting guests, Drs.W.F. Hoyt, T.R. Hedges Jr. (USA),W.S. Foulds (UK) and S. Ishikawa (Japan), along with many other symposium organizers attended the meetings. However, we all missed several very important neuro-ophthalmologists who passed away during the two years since the previous INOS meeting in Geneve, Drs. Alfred Huber, Tadashi Fujino, and Kenji Ohtsuka.
This is only the second time since 1986 that an INOS meeting has been held in an Asian country. In contrast with the 1986 INOS meeting that was held in Hakone, in which there were only a few Asian participants, I am very proud to report that some 50 participants from Asian countries other than Japan attended the meeting this time.
With regard to human health and the quality of life, today, clinicians need to be able to efficiently apply a tremendous amount of information from both the clinical neuro-ophthalmology field, as well as from the fundamental neurosciences area when dealing with patients that have neuro-ophthalmic issues. With this aim in mind, our committee asked several international experts to present new information at 15 different symposiums that took place during the meetings. The Tatsuji Inouye Symposium (named for the 7th director of the Inouye Eye Hospital and the first person to document and report occipital visual mapping) dealt with the history and current concepts of visual recognition. This was the highlight of the meeting, with extraordinary up-to-date results of brain science related to vision being presented. If one were to sum up the meetings, key words would include disorders of visual sensory pathway, hereditary optic neuropathies, electrophysiology in neuro-ophthalmology, pupil light reflex, eye movement disorders, vergence and accommodation, thyroidassociated ophthalmopathy, myasthenia gravis, development of neuroimaging, blepharospasm, low vision and psychomedicine in neuro-ophthalmology.
A total of 226 original clinical and scientific papers were also presented during the oral and poster sessions. The abstracts submitted were reviewed by a local committee that included eight Japanese neuro-ophthalmologists who assessed the originality, scientific quality and interest for clinicians. Then, the top 50 were chosen for publication in a special issue of Neuro-ophthalmology. The authors from these top 50 abstracts were asked if they would like to submit full-length papers. We received a total of 17 papers, from which 15 were finally chosen for publication after review by the international board members.
I believe that the INOS 2006 meetings were not only the basis for creative and constructive discussions but also will be the source of wonderful memories for all of the attendees in the years to come. In addition, the INOS 2006 meetings were truly indicative of the prosperity and the worldwide interest in the field of neuroophthalmology that has developed over the recent years and that will continue to build in the years to come.