5th Annual ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School

Faculty and participants of the 5th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School in Bern

Report Submitted by: Urs Fischer, Pasquale Mordasini, Jan Gralla, Simon Jung

The 5th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School was held in Bern, Switzerland from the 30th January to 2nd of February 2018. The local organizing committee were Prof. Jan Gralla, PD Dr. Pasquale Mordasini, PD Dr. Simon Jung and Prof. Urs Fischer. They were actively supported by Regula Aebischer, Michela Mordasini and Helena Gerber. We had the difficult task to select 64 participants out of 133 applicants, but eventually 36 rising stroke physicians and 28 neurointerventionalists arrived in Bern from the following 20 different countries: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States. The primary aim of the fifth ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School was bringing together European stroke physicians and neurointerventionalists in order to enhance interdisciplinary management of patients with acute ischaemic stroke. The Stroke Winter School started on the 30th of January 2018 with the welcome of the president elect of the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), Prof. Bart Van der Worp, the president of the European Society of Minimal Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT), Prof. Laurent Pierot, and the committee member of the Interventional Neuroradiology Section of the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR), represented by Prof. Jan Gralla. The 29 speakers (12 from EU, 17 from Switzerland) including neurologists, interventional and non-interventional neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, and neuropediatricians led challenging discussions. The teaching program included 31 lectures and 4-6 tutorials. The main focus of the lectures was interdisciplinary treatment of acute stroke. There were sessions on acute stroke imaging, acute treatment strategies including endovascular approaches, stroke treatment in difficult circumstances and needs to set up an interdisciplinary stroke center. In the afternoon tutorials were given separately for neurointerventionalists and stroke physicians. Neurointerventionalists had the opportunity for structured hands-on teaching in small groups on endovascular procedures with animal models and management of complications of endovascular treatment. Stroke physicians could learn neuroangiography on a model and were taught CT and MRI interpretations by neuroradiologists. A special highlight for the interventional neurointerventionalists were the hands-on teaching sessions with the animal model. Small groups of 4-5 participants were given the opportunity to perform diagnostic angiography and endovascular treatment procedures such as thrombectomy with multiple devices. Another highlight was the newly established stroke simulation course: stroke physicians and neurointerventionalists took part in a real-life setting with simulated clinical stroke cases: physicians had to take care of the stroke patient and to decide on acute stroke management. Physicians were observed by colleagues and professionals and received feedback on their performance. During the stroke winter school a faculty meeting was held with members of the ESO, ESMINT and ESNR in order to discuss future common strategies to enhance the quality of stroke management. Main topic was the training of future neurointerventionalists in areas with a current lack of experienced staff. During the stroke winter school participants and faculty had three joint dinners to favour socialization. The following sponsors contributed to the realization of the stroke winter school: Stryker, Microvention, Penumbra, Cerenovus, Medtronic, 1a Medical AG, Balt, Vascular Medical, Rapid medical, Phenox, Siemens, Daiichi-Sankyo, Boehringer Ingelheim The local organizing committee thanks all the invited speakers for giving time and efforts to the stroke winter school, for coming to Bern, and for delivering high quality lectures. Their interest and passion to teach the upcoming generation of stroke pyhsicians and neurointerventionalists was clearly visible. There will be a 6th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School end of January 2019 in Bern