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    Rokuya Tanikawa, MD, IFAANS

    Vice Executive President
    Far East Neurosurgical Institute, Sapporo Teishinkai Hospital

    Rokuya Tanikawa was born in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture where is in the north part of the main land of Japan in 1962. After he was graduated from Asahikawa Medical College in 1988, he had his residency in the department of neurosurgery, Asahikawa Medical College Hospital for five years, then he had the training of vascular neurosurgery under professor Hiroyasu Kamiyama in 1993 to 94. He became the chief neurosurgeon in Abashiri neurosurgical hospital, Abashiri in 1996, where is very country side with less population of 40000. He tried meticulous persistent surgery in each patient spending whole day in order to perform an exact procedure confirming the surgical anatomy in Abashiri. In spite of less cases there he achieved the basic skill of current his surgery during the work in Abashiri.  
    He has followed professor Kamiyama in cerebrovascular surgery, and followed professor Fukushima in skull base surgery for more than 20 years. He experienced 500 ruptured aneurysms and 500 unruptured aneurysms in Abashiri for 16 years there. He was invited to Helsinki microsurgery live course in 2010 by professor Juha Hernesniemi and had been the regular member of the faculty of the course until the end of the course in 2019.  
    In 2012 he moved to Sapporo in order to begin a new neurosurgery department in Sapporo Teishinkai Hospital with professor Kamiyama and Dr. Sadahisa Tokuda. Regardless of the academic background, many young neurosurgeon from all over Japan gather at FENI to learn Tanikawa's neurosurgery. 14 neurosurgeons are engaged in neurosurgery training day and night currently. 
    Tanikawa has been focusing on developing the next generation, he organized Far East Neurosurgical Video Conference since 2001 and the conference was upgraded to Far East Live Microsurgery Course in 2014 which is held in every July annually, more than 150 neurosurgeons from all over the world participated the course every year. His international fellows are more than 300, currently about 10 young neurosurgeons from overseas stay in Far East Neurosurgical Institute(FENI, Sapporo Teishinkai Hospital) as clinical fellow or observer. 
    He always tells his disciples. The number of surgical experiences dose not matter. Careful anatomical confirmation of each case and preserving the original anatomy as much as possible is the best way to improve surgery.  
    His outstanding surgical skill and strategy, as well as his personality, attract many people, and he has requested lectures once or twice a month from all over the world.
    He enjoys making radio-control airplane, computer programming, tuning cars, time-attacks or car race in circuits, fishing as well as riding motorbikes as his hobby.  
     
     
     

    Disclosure(s): Takayama Medical Instrument: Advisor (Ongoing)

    Presentation(s):