History and Introduction

Established in 1959, when this hospital was first built, the Department of Neurology was originally known as Division of Neuropsychiatry, which belongs to the Department of Medicine, leading by National Defense Medical Center Professor Xi-Gong Liu (劉錫恭), with Fu-Li Chu (朱復禮)、An-Shih Lee (李安石)、Yun Kwan Yang (楊雲官) served as special physicians. Since 1963, Fu-Li Chu as the director of Division of Neuropsychiatry was the first neurologist in charge of Neuropsychiatry. Department of Neuropsychiatry became an independent department in 1976, and further divided into two departments in 1983, the Department of Neurology and the Department of Psychiatry. The Department of Neurology was comprised of two divisions and two units, namely Division of General Neurology, Division of Cerebrovascular Diseases, Electromyogram (EMG) Lab and Electroencephalogram (EEG) Lab, which were leaded by  Hsiu-Chih Liu (劉秀枝), Han-Hwa Hu (胡漢華), Ricky M.S. Su (蘇明勳), and Zin-An Wu (吳進安) respectively.

Integrating with Division of Neurosurgery, delicately planed by Director Fu-Li Chu and Director Liang-Shong Lee (李良雄), the Neurological Institute at Taipei Veterans General Hospital was founded in January 1989. This is the first institute comprising of specialists in neurological and neurosurgical disorders, and plays a leading role in Taiwan. It consisted of seven divisions, that is General Neurology, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Peripheral Nervous System Disorders, Epilepsy, General Neurosurgery, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Functional Neurosurgery, and one Neurological Intensive Care Unit (NCU). Stroke Intensive Care Unit (SCU) was established in 1998. Four years later, Division of Neural Regeneration and Repair was founded in 2002. The NCU was renamed as Department of Neurological Intensive Care. Currently, the Neurological Institute is comprised of nine divisions and the SCU. In addition to clinical service and academic research, education programs for domestic and international trainees have been offered. It is our responsibility to contribute to the global effort to improve the care of neurological and neurosurgical patients.

The Department of Neurology in the Neurological Institute currently consists of four divisions, including General Neurology, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Peripheral Nervous System Disorders, and Epilepsy. As a department in one of the largest and most advanced hospitals in Taiwan, we have 126 beds, including 12 in the intensive care units (8 in the SCU and 4 in the NCU). There are also 24 seasoned attending neurologists, in which five of them professors.

We provide a full range of services and specialized neurological tests for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, such as neuropsychological examinations, electroencephalography (EEG), video-EEG monitoring (V-EEG), nerve conduction studies (NCS), electromyography (EMG), sensory evoked potentials (SEP), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), cerebral hemodynamic test, cerebrovascular ultrasonography, vestibular function test, nerve and muscle biopsies, and neurogenetic/neuroimmunological tests. We also founded Stroke and Neurovascular Diseases Center, Headache Center, and Dizziness Center. In addition, our staffs had outstanding performances in clinical and basic researches.