Table 1.

The development of the Watanabe arthroscope

Year	Major event
1931	Kenji Takagi devises his No. 1 arthroscope, the 3.5 mm prototype of the modern arthroscope.
1936	Takagi takes color photographs and movies of knee arthroscopy.
1938	Takagi produces his No. 12 arthroscope.
1949	Masaki Watanabe transfers to Tokyo Teisin Hospital.
1954	Watanabe removes a xanthoma from the knee.
1957	Watanabe and colleagues publish “The Atlas of Arthroscopy.”
1959	The Watanabe No. 21 becomes a production model.
1962	Watanabe performs the first arthroscopic partial meniscectomy.
1964	Robert Jackson learns knee arthroscopy from Watanabe.
1965	Jackson brings knee arthroscopy to North America at the Toronto General Hospital using the Watanabe No. 21 arthroscope.
1967	Jackson presents his experience with the Watanabe No. 21 arthroscope at the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation in Atlanta.
1968	Jackson and Isao Abe present an instructional lecture on knee arthroscopy at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.
1968	Leonard Peltier orders the first Watanabe No.21 arthroscope in the US.
1969	Richard O’Connor visits Watanabe to learn knee arthroscopy.
1972	John Joyce organizes the first course on arthroscopy in Philadelphia.
1974	Richard O’Connor reports on the first partial meniscectomies performed in North America.
1974	The International Arthroscopy Association is established.
1982	The Arthroscopy Association of North America is founded.