At the first post-war International Congress of Neurology in Paris, 1949, Alfonso Asenjo Gómez, from Chile, arranged for a meeting with a group of neurosurgeons in order to discuss how neurosurgery might present itself at international congresses in the future. In the end of a deliberate discussion it was decided to participate as a separate group.
Dr. Alfonso Asenjo recognized a need for a journal to address the needs of the growing field of neurosurgery. Having trained in neurosurgery under Tonnis in 1939, Asenjo had seen first-hand the positive impact of a dedicated neurosurgery journal. His further training and observerships in France, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, and the US underlined his belief that neurosurgery’s growth was an international endeavor. Asenjo recognized that the world at war very much limited neurosurgeons’ ability to travel (the classic Wanderjahre that many surgeons undertook to cross-fertilize the field throughout the continents). With the loss of Zentralblatt, Asenjo wrote several members of the Harvey Cushing Society in May of 1943, among whom was John Fulton’s research assistant, Dr. Paul Bucy. In this proposal, Dr. Asenjo suggested that the society establish an international journal for neurosurgery and that John Fulton serve as its managing editor.