Conferences Feature Best Practices, Professional Enrichment

The Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery hosted its first annual Conference on Pediatric Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke in July, attracting 30 clinicians from 19 institutions for five days of professional enrichment and education. The conference covered a wide range of topics, including acute stroke and traumatic vascular injury, cerebral arteriopathy of Alagille, PHACES and young adult stroke, sickle cell cerebrovascular disease, and cerebrovascular complications with extracorporeal oxygenation.

“This was a first of many important multidisciplinary gatherings furthering progress on pediatric neurovascular disease,” says Sudhakar Vadivelu, DO, director of the Cerebrovascular Disease Center at Cincinnati Children’s. ”It was a collaborative approach to identify current gaps in pediatric stroke best care practices, and has resulted in two manuscripts for publications moving forward. The conference was an amazing experience for myself and for attendees — so much so that many remarked, ‘we’re definitely requesting to come back next year.’”

Many thanks to our invited presenters, including Michael Taylor, MD, pediatric stroke and neurocritical care specialist at Cincinnati Children’s, and presenters from other institutions, including physicians representing Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Children’s Medical Center Dallas and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Earlier this year, the division also hosted its fifth annual Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Pediatric Neurosurgery Conference, at Cincinnati Children’s. More than 63 APPs from 23 institutions took part, with presentations on a variety of topics, including pediatric epilepsy surgery, acute stroke management and pediatric spine trauma. This year, for the first time, the conference welcomed an international speaker, Jonathan Roth, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon from Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital in Israel, who presented on incidental brain tumors.

The 2019 CVD Conference will take place July 15-19 in Aspen, and online registration will open in early 2019. Registration for the sixth annual APP Pediatric Neurosurgery Conference, scheduled for May 2-3, 2019 in Cincinnati, is available online.