Dr. Takeyoshi Shimoji’s medical work took a left turn in the 90s when a patient’s parents wanted to operate on their child with Mild Metopic Craniosynostosis (Mild Trigonocephaly).  He refused to operate several times on the common practice of not exposing the child to unnecessary surgery as mild cases of Mild Metopic Synostosis (Mild Trigonocephaly) according to medical literature offer very limited or no improvement of neurological of physical symptoms with significant risks.

Dr. Takeyoshi Shimoji Okinawa Japan

Dr. Shimoji after several pleas decided to operate on a patient which had a remarkable recovery later in life. He continued to not operate on these types of cases for years then another case came in and he did another surgery. Once again that patient had a remarkable improvement in symptoms and was able to lead a nearly normal life. After that event, Dr. Shimoji saw an avenue to explore medically if these were isolated cases or a trend that was forming positive reasoning for operating on Mild Metopic Craniosynostosis (Mild Trigonocephaly) with neurologically symptomatic patients.

The research with a Grant from the Japanese Government allowed Dr. Shimoji to operate over 600 cases of Mild Metopic Craniosynostosis with symptoms and these yielded remarkable results according to the data.  In some cases Autism symptoms decreased or corrected altogether, kids with tendencies to harm themselves stopped and corrected, cognitive tests improved in most cases and a very small minority had no improvements that were measurable.

After reading many of his medical papers and having conversations via email with Dr. Shimoji, our choice to operate on James our son was more clear than ever. Our son was having terrible neurological symptoms that started at 13 1/2 months, that were getting worst like not looking at faces, stopped talking at all, spinning in place, meltdown tantrums, biting his arms, not responding to his name, and being in a constant state of brain fog.

Dr. Shimoji instructed us on the way to perform surgery on our son by having a skilled neurosurgeon remove the sphenoid ridges or wings as much as possible to allow the Mirror Neurons area of the frontal brain lobes to have a larger space to develop as in Autistic children this area of the brain is believed to impact that area. In his research removing the ridges of the Sphenoid yielded better overall post-surgery results in Autistic symptoms on Metopic Craniosynostosis (Mild Trigonocephaly) patients.  So we asked Dr. Levy to do just that along with submitting Dr. Shimoji’s work on the matter. He obliged and the surgery proceeded to the letter.

As of this writing nearing the 3-month post-surgery date, our son James has had remarkable progress with behavior, has recovered some words, and is looking at faces and interaction with parents. He is also cognitively solving puzzles both physical and electronic which required concentration that was impossible to even try before the surgery happened. We believe operating on our son James was the right decision and we have given him a second chance at a future.

Below you can find medical research and other papers that Dr. Shimoji has shared with us for dissemination based on his extensive surgery work. We encourage you to read them all and get acquainted with the work before making a decision to operate.  Note that the operation itself is risky and can yield negative results in a child even when taking proper precautions. Skull reconstruction surgery is life-threatening and it is a decision that should not be taken lightly and must be done by both parents and the surgeon over discussions.  Every case is different, our boy’s case had a positive outcome and we are very grateful to Dr. Shimoji, Dr Gosman, and Dr. Levy for their continued support.  It is recommended that you read and get educated fully before making a final decision.

Dr. Takeyoshi Shimoji’s Medical Research and Papers:
  1. Mild trigonocephaly with clinical symptoms: analysis of surgical results in 65 patients  (Download Paper)
  2. Mild trigonocephaly and intracranial pressure: report of 56 patients
  3. Mild trigonocephaly -Report of 300 operative cases-
  4. Analysis of pre- and post-operative symptoms of patients with mild trigonocephaly using several developmental and psychological tests.
  5. A recurrent PJA1 variant in trigonocephaly and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Articles relating to Dr. Shimoji’s Work: