Asian Society for Vascular Surgery

Early of 1990s John B Chang and Yoshio Mishima felt the need of a society for the surgeons in Asia for practicing vascular surgery. John B Chang (USA), Yoshio Mishima (Japan) ,  YongKak Lee (Korea) and ZhongGao Wang (China), the founding fellows of the society, discussed the foundation of the society at the 6th International Vascular Meeting, Lotte Hotel in Seoul in 1992. At this meeting the society was recognised. Along with the establishment of AVS, the First Congress of the Asian Vascular Society was believed in the year 1994 in Ube, Japan. Following to this, there were biennial Congresses of the Society held at different cities in Asia; Seoul, Korea; Manila, Philippines; Beijing, China; Bangalore, India and Singapore.

At the Singapore (2002) Council meeting, proposals came to re-structure the society to keep step with the changing times. Following this, many Council meetings were organized in Tokyo, Japan; in the year 2003 and HongKong in November, 2003 to discuss the changes to be made. After much discussion, the new structure of the society was framed. The society was re- named as Asian Society for Vascular Surgery by Nobuyuki Nakajima. The 2004 council meeting held at Bangalore approved the changed name of the society from AVS to ASVS. The council also agreed that ASVS was a continuation of AVS and the soul and history of the AVS must be kept, and the symbol of the society must not be changed.

The 7th International Conference of the Asian Society for Vascular Surgery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was the first conference of the society under the new name. In 2012 ASVS organised its first congress outside Asia (the 13th Congress) in Melbourne.

Under the guidance of Hiroshi Shigematsu as Secretary-General, the society prolonged to include the member countries from Middle-East. It was well time-honoured by the international vascular societies like WFVS and ISVS.

After the efforts to enlist ASVS as a society in Japan was unsuccessful, ASVS was officially registered as the ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’ in Hong Kong in April 2008.