One of the first training courses in the world, and the first in Italy, which combines the activity of neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists, has just concluded in the ‘Giampaolo Cantore’ necropsy medicine center of the Irccs Neuromed in Pozzilli (Is).
“This time our group has decided to offer, in addition to the classic courses for neurosurgeons, also one for neuroradiologists – explains Nicola Gorgoglione, Neuromed neurosurgeon who together with colleagues Paolo di Russo, Arianna Fava and Michelangelo De Angelis, and professor Vincenzo Esposito who manages the activities of the Center for Necroscopic Medicine – I think it is the first time in the world that fellow neuroradiologists participate in a course in which there is an anatomical dissection component that they see with our help. This activity allows them to deepen from a different point of view on the neurovascular anatomy of the brain”.
“We also show the cerebrovascular anatomy from the inside to neurologists”
“Neurosurgeon and neuroradiologist have a synergistic relationship in the operating room – explains di Russo – often the latter is the first person who sees the patient and then directs the work of the neurosurgeons on the basis of the type of pathology to be treated whether it is a tumour, a spinal or vascular. We have therefore decided to organize the course to enhance this relationship of close collaboration and we are already thinking of promoting another one, always on the same typology, in which we show the cerebro-vascular anatomy from the inside also to neurologists who are another professional figure with whom we have a strong collaboration always in the field of patient management”.
“The neuroradiologist has a completely different vision compared to that of the neurosurgeon – continues Marcello Bartolo, head of Neuromed diagnostic and interventional neuroradiology – they open the skull and have an anatomical vision of the different regions of the brain; the neuroradiologist has always had an indirect view of the nervous system and anatomy. Magnetic resonance and angiography study represent our investigation tools but we do not have a direct view of the anatomy but a two-dimensional one. Often, in fact, we go to see operations in the operating room where the neurosurgeon goes to operate on the lesions that we have studied with imaging systems. The opportunity to have a necropsy medicine centre, which allows colleagues who come from all over Italy to study pathologies in the dissecting room, is very important”.
“Today the dialogue between neurosurgeons and interventional neuroradiologists is fundamental – underlines Salvatore Mangiafico, specialist in Neurology, radiodiagnostics and neurosurgery – because we often treat borderline and common pathologies. It is also necessary to have a common knowledge of the anatomical structures in the operating field and of the difficulties that the surgeon may find in the face of a particular anatomical situation that we can describe and deal with differently. We neuroradiologists, then, acquire a whole series of surgical knowledge that is not part of the cultural background of radiology but is equally important”.