The CHI St. Vincent Arkansas Neuroscience Institute (ANI) hosted leading neurosurgeons from around the world Oct. 26–28 for an educational workshop on advanced techniques for microsurgery of skull base tumors. The course featured Dr. Ossama Al-Mefty, director of the skull base program in the Neurosurgery Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Harvard School of Medicine teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Innovative workshops and courses like this are one way we’re advancing the field of neurosurgery at the Arkansas Neuroscience Institute,” said ANI Director and Lead Neurosurgeon Dr. Ali Krisht, recipient of the 2019 Herbert Olivecrona Award for contributions to the field of neurosurgery. “We’re honored that Dr. Al-Mefty, who I consider one of my mentors, can return to share his expertise in skull base tumors and help other doctors take that insight home to impact lives in their communities.”

The workshop took place at the ANI Research and Education Center on the campus of CHI St. Vincent North in Sherwood, Arkansas. ANI celebrated the grand opening of the M.G. Yasargil Neurosurgical Research and Education Center and O. Al-Mefty Microneurosurgery Laboratory in June 2019 with the mission to improve treatment outcomes for patients, map the human brain and provide training for neurosurgeons to develop the skills necessary to tackle the most complex cases. The new center features the only existing laboratory where neurosurgeons can train using The Aboud Model: The Live Cadaver, which circulates blood-like perfusate through a cadaver using a cardiac pump to simulate life-like conditions in terms of bleeding, pulsation and softness of tissue. The model provides surgeons with the advanced training they need without the enhanced pressure of operating on a live patient.

“The Arkansas Neuroscience Institute is becoming a beacon of light for neurosurgeons around the world,” said Dr. Krisht. “We offer them both the expertise and opportunity for hands-on experience with life-like simulations that they cannot find anywhere else as we work together to advance this important field.”

The center also includes the Margaret Clark Auditorium which is connected by fiber optic cable to four state-of-the-art neurosurgery suites at CHI St. Vincent North to live-stream 3D video of neurosurgical procedures from a microscopic camera navigating areas of a patient’s brain in the operating room. The unique resource allows 150 students and fellow neurosurgeons to follow surgeries in real time and see how the world’s best neurosurgeons conduct procedures or address unexpected discoveries.

Additional visiting faculty for Dr. Al-Mefty’s course on microsurgery of skull base tumors included Dr. Badih Abada of Cleveland Clinic Florida, Dr. Kaith Al-Mefty of the Barrow Neurological Institute, Dr. Kenan Arnautovic of the University of Tennessee Semmes-Murphey Clinic, Dr. Rami Al-Mefty of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Dr. Paulo A.S. Kadri, director of the El Kadri Neurological Institute of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. The Arkansas Neuroscience Institute’s next workshop, Advanced Course in Cerebral Aneurysms, is scheduled for December 14–16, 2019.