The Future of “Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery”

After the sudden and unfortunate death of Professor Axel Perneczky in January 2009, the publisher balanced options for the future of the journal; continuance with a new Editor or even its termination were under consideration. Fortunately, continuation was the result and the publisher started to build up a new Editorial group who will keep alive Axel Perneczky's idea of minimally invasive neurosurgery. After having been asked from the publisher to take over the Editorship of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery we are now on our way of building a new Editorial Team to continue Axel Perneczky's courageous work and to succeed him in the Editorship of the journal.

Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery was founded in 1993 and directed for over 15 years by Axel Perneczky, foreseeing the importance of minimally invasive techniques and associated technology for the future of neurosurgery. Under his committed Editorship and outstanding international reputation, the journal quickly advanced to the most progressive and modern international journal in this field. Neurosurgeons and other physicians such as neuroradiologists, ENT surgeons, radio-oncologists, and anatomists from all over the world supported the journal as readers, authors, and members of the editorial board. At present, the journal is especially recognized in Asia, where Axel Perneczky was most engaged over the past years due to the tremendous interest and rapidly growing knowledge about technology and neurosurgical techniques in that area.

It is a sincere honor for me to follow Axel Perneczky as Editor-in-Chief of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery and it is my strong belief that this journal is of the utmost importance for the publication of minimally invasive neurosurgical issues internationally, today and in the future. With your help as readers, authors, reviewers, and/or members of the Editorial Board, I am sure that we will succeed by focusing on the original ideas of the journal – to be a high quality forum for neuroendoscopy, minimally invasive neurosurgery, intraoperative imaging and associated technological advances. Minimal Invasiveness is still a very important issue in Neurosurgery.

We believe that the change in Editorship also harbors the chance of improvement to orient the journal for the future. For me, improvement and progress mean changes with respect to the outstanding work in the past. Therefore, I would like to sincerely thank all members of the Editorial Board and reviewers for their engagement over the last 15 years. Obviously, my greatest thanks go to Axel Perneczky for his outstanding work for the journal and the opportunity to learn from him a great deal about minimally invasive neurosurgery. It is our sincere intention to further direct this journal with respect to his ideas. The least we can do in this context is to recognize Axel Perneczky as “Honorary Editor” of the journal Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery.

Improvement and progress concern also the submission and review process while preparing for full electronic submission and review. This facility will be available shortly.

Having mastered all these changes, I am sure that Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery will be well prepared for the future and will gain further impact as the international platform for minimally invasive and endoscopic neurosurgery.

The new and highly motivated team invites you to contribute to this exciting journal as a reader, author, or may be some time in the future as an active member of the team!

For the Editorial Board and the Publisher

Nikolai Hopf, Editor-in-Chief

Correspondence