At the Fifth SICOT Conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1951, there were several projects presented with color pictures obtained through
the arthroscope.
In 1957, the 7th SICOT Congress was held in Barcelona and Masaki Watanabe presented, for the first time,
a work on arthroscopy at an international congress held outside of Japan. It was a color film titled “Arthroscopy”.
He then visited different Hospitals in Europe showing this work.
Finally in November, he traveled to the US. The 2nd of November, in Philadelphia, he participated in the Joint Meeting of the
Philadelphia Orthopaedic Club and the New York Medical Academy. The speakers were:
Masaki Watanabe presented the aforementioned film “Arthroscopy”. From the 17th of that month, he visited the
Mayo Clinic, where he met with several colleagues: Polley and Bickel. On the 19th, he returned to present
the film at St Mary’s Hospital. He then moved to Los Angeles and met David Kling of Boyer-Kling Institute
He gave the opinion that the development of Arthroscopy had been completed in 4 phases:
1st. 1920-1959
Beginnings
A few publications during the 20s
During the 30s an extensive work was carried out in Japan:
Instruments
Surgical Techniques
Details of Anatomy
Books
The US also took part in this work
2nd. 1960-1969
Practical application of arthroscopy
1962: 1st arthroscopic meniscectomy. A 17-Year-old boy who was playing basketball incurred a distortion of the knee, causing a pedunculated rupture of the medial meniscus. The peduncle was cut and extracted. The boy returned home walking on the same day and 6 weeks later he returned to playing basketball
1964: 1st Joint Meeting of the American and Japanese Orthopaedic Associations held in Japan, Masaki Watanabe presented the arthroscope No. 21 and a film in 16mm and color, which included the 1st arthroscopic partial meniscectomy carried out by him in 1962. The work was criticized by a surgeon at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York and by Professor Mizumo of the Osaka University. The film didn’t receive the praise expected of it either.
In July Robert W. Jackson traveled with the winter sports team from Canada to Japan for the purposes of:
1) Studying tissue culture techniques and, in addition
2) At the request of Ian McNab, who had been experimenting with a pediatric cystoscope to examine the inside of the knee; to meet and visit Masaki Watanabe who was the one who had presented an arthroscopy project in Barcelona. He found him at the Tokyo Teishin Hospital, an institution for the care of postal workers and their relatives. The assistants of Masaki Watanabe were Takeda and Hiroshi Ikeuchi. The latter spoke English, as he had stayed for 1 year in the US and, therefore, acted as an interpreter.
He learnt surgical arthroscopic techniques.
1965: He returned to Toronto, to the Toronto General Hospital, with the Arthroscope Watanabe No. 21 and a camera (half-frame camera)
1966: Isao Abe carried out a research fellowship with Robert W. Jackson and they shared training on arthroscopy and tissue culture. They performed 70 arthroscopies together.
At that time, those performing arthroscopy outside Japan were: Jason, rheumatologist from the UK, Dixon, rheumatologist from the UK and Robles Gil, rheumatologist from Mexico
1967: 1st presentation of 6min in length, conducted by Robert W. Jackson at the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation held in Atlanta. It wasn’t convincing.
2nd presentation in Toronto during the Founding Meeting of the Association of Academic Surgeons. It achieved more success but few attendees believed in the effectiveness of the technique.
From that year (1967) Robert W Jackson started communicating with orthopaedic surgeons who were interested in the topic: S Ward Casscells, Jack McGinty, John Joyce III, David Drez
1968: In May of 1968, during the course of the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons held in the United States, the first course of arthroscopy training was done by Robert W. Jackson.
He made 16mm film in color using a Beaulieu camera adapted to the arthroscope and began the use of a black and white TV screen during surgery
1969: Robert W. Jackson began working with Michael Burman (New York City) (part of the instruments used to perform arthroscopy are currently in the museum of the Hospital for Joint Diseases)
The following began the practice of arthroscopy: Dick O’Connor, in Europe: Henri Dorfman, Michele Aignan, Harold Eikelaar, Jan Gillquist, Hans-Rudolf Henche. The latter followed the teachings of Eugen Bircher and employed gas to loosen up the articular cavity
3rd. 1970-1978
International dissemination
Arthroscopy of the knee with the No. 21 arthroscope began to be introduced in the US, Canada, France, the UK and other countries
1970: In Sydney, Australia, the Combined Meeting of the Orthopaedic Associations of the English-Speaking World was held: Robert W. Jackson presented a paper on his experiences with arthroscopy. After the congress, himself, S Ward Casscells and George Schonholtz traveled to Japan to visit Masaki Watanabe
At that time, the following people practiced arthroscopy: Lanny L Johnson , Kenneth DeHaven and Ralph Lidge
Later, the Selfoscope was designed (Olympus Optical Company)
1971-2: publications begin to appear in the JBJS: S Ward Casscells, Isao Abe…
4th: 1979-…
Consolidation
William McAusland, president of the North American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons suggested to S Ward Casscells to organize courses for the teaching of arthroscopy