World Skull Base 2016

Kenji Ohata, MD, PhD

It is a great pleasure for me to present the supplement to the Journal of Neurological Surgery: Part B, Skull Base. This supplement is a memorial issue for the World Skull Base Society 2016 congress, which was organized on June 14 to 17, 2016, in Osaka. This congress included the 7^th International Congress of the World Federation of Skull Base Societies, the 28^th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Skull Base Surgery, and the 10^th Congress of International Meningioma Society and Cerebral Venous System. The congress was a grand success with 683 presentations from 39 countries that included 502 presentations from Neurosurgery, 150 from Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, 15 from Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and 16 miscellaneous. The theme of the congress was “Creation and Collaboration for the Future” embodied vignettes from skull base pioneers, round table discussions, keynote debates on controversial topics, disease specific expert panels, focus groups on advances in surgical techniques and diagnostic developments, and instructional courses by the experts of the world.

This supplemental issue is a collection of articles based on the presentations presented in the congress and each article has been selected after thorough peer review process. Topics of the articles are varied from endoscopic endonasal approaches, radiation, chemoradiation, endovascular treatment, image-guided surgery, and transcranial skull base approaches for various skull base lesions.

Endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) has been gaining great momentum in the recent years and thus, is a major field of focus, in this issue. There are three articles that focus on the anterior skull base meningioma, nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma in the cavernous sinus, and chordoma in the craniovertebral junction, mentioning the advantage and limitation of EEA. There is one article, which is probably the first systematic review of the complications and morbidities related to nasoseptal flap, used in reconstruction after endoscopic endonasal skull base approach. Conceivably, EEA could reach maturity after the revival and development of the nasoseptal flap reconstruction.

This issue is the result of a joint effort from all the skull base societies and will surely be of interest to many readers. I am honored to serve as the Guest Editor of this issue and would like to thank all the authors and the production team for their timeless efforts.