Address

6005-3 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama 244-0003, Japan

TEL

045-869-0881

FAX

045-869-0882

E-mail

info@iyemasa-cl.jp

President

Chia-Cheng Chang, M.D., Ph.D.

1982-1984

Medical Trainee at Yokohama City University

1984

Department of Neurosurgery, Yokohama City University, School of Medicine

1993-1997

Yokohama Minami Kyosai Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery

1997-2001

Department of Neurosurgery, Yokohama City University, School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Yokohama City University, School of Medicine

2000

Visiting Scholar: Mayo clinic, Mount Sinai hospital, University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

2001-2010

Director of Department of Neurosurgery, Yokohama Minami Kyosai Hospital

2011-present

President of Iyemasa Neurosurgical Clinic, Yokohama, Japan

Member, The Japan Neurosurgical Society
Member, The Japan Stroke Society
Member, The Japanese Society of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
Member, Multicenter prospective study, Study of Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus on Neurological Improvement (SINPHONI I and II)
Member, Japan Society for Dementia Research
Member, The Japan Epilepsy Society
Caretaker, Kanagawa PET/SPECT Association
Councilor, Shonan Neurosurgical Association

Is neurosurgery a special field of medicine? The answer is no. Neurosurgery is the medical specialty that deals not only with diseases requiring surgery, but also with all diseases associated with the brain and nervous system including common headache, dizziness, forgetfulness, head injury, cerebral infarction, brain hemorrhage, back pain, and numbness of limbs.

• 1. Headache, dizziness
• 2. Numbness of limbs, stiff shoulders, back pain
• 3. Forgetfulness, incontinence, gait disturbance
• 4. Stroke (e.g. subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brain hemorrhage), brain tumor, head injury, other brain nerve diseases
• 5. Lifestyle diseases that are risk factors for stroke (e.g. hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia)
• 6. Head and limbs injury, emergency care
• 7. Epilepsy, loss of consciousness, blackout, impaired nervous regulation

Iyemasa Neurosurgical Clinic is a friendly clinic that takes care of patients with brain-related diseases and symptoms. In order to detect diseases that require early treatment, we generally perform a head MRI on the day of consultation.
In addition to neurosurgical diseases, we also focus on the treatment of key lifestyle diseases including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes that are risk factors for heart and brain diseases in order to protect the health of the brain. Meanwhile, recent years have seen a globally growing importance of addressing dementia. Drugs to effectively treat dementia are yet to be developed and made available. However, there are some things we can do now to prevent dementia (or at least to delay the onset of dementia). Iyemasa Neurosurgical Clinic is a training institution certified by the Japan Society for Dementia Research, and the President is a board-certified specialist and dementia support doctor certified by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Dementia care is one of the features of our clinic. Specifically, we provide medical care for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH), a type of dementia that is potentially treatable by surgery. By utilizing an open system, we perform iNPH surgery at a hospital where our collaborating neurosurgeons work. We use a surgical approach called lumboperitoneal shunt (LP shunt) that is less invasive to the brain (even though iNPH is a brain disease). We have performed about 900 LP shunt operations in 9 years since the opening of our clinic in January 2011, making our clinic a highly experienced medical institution in the procedure.

■ Consultation by doctor on behalf of the President

■ Consultation in foreign languages

The latest model of 1.5-tesla MRI system from SIEMENS (Germany) has been installed to completely examine not only the brain and brain blood vessels but also spinal cord, nerves, and the whole body.

An MRI scan cannot be performed on patients with implanted pacemakers. Also, it is generally difficult to perform an MRI scan on infants who cannot remain still. For these cases, a CT scan is performed to thoroughly examine the brain.

The X-ray system is equipped with a computed radiography (CR) device that converts acquired images into digital data.

The CR device converts acquired images into digital data, thereby eliminating the need for film processing. Acquired images can be examined immediately after the scan.

The acquired images are converted into digital data without degradation in image quality.

Recommended for patients with lifestyle diseases
The brain is an organ and part of the body that is affected by smoking, drinking alcohol, stress, and lifestyle diseases including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Severe brain diseases (e.g. subarachnoid hemorrhage, brain hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brain tumor) are often detected only after the development of symptoms.
In this context, periodical medical checkup of the brain with MRI plays a critical role in prevention and early detection of brain diseases. Medical checkup of the brain is recommended specifically for patients with lifestyle diseases.