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State of the Art Surgical Approaches to the Skull Base

Register for the 2007 Course Today
December 14-16, 2007
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City.

In a groundbreaking precedent, the first 3-day Skull Base Neurosurgical Course with 3D technology and Virtual Reality was presented in December 2006 by Philip E Stieg, PhD, MD and Antonio Bernardo, MD at Cornell University.

The course was the first of The Cornell Skull Base Courses series at the Department of Neurosurgery. These courses will utilize state-of-the-art technologies to afford the surgeons excellent preoperative training to contribute to the lifelong education of neurosurgeons and to ultimately improve the health care of the nation and the world.

While lesions of the skull base present a unique challenge to neurosurgeons, developments in cranial base surgery continue to rapidly emerge. Mastering new approaches and technologies is an integral part of providing patients with the most current options for optimal treatment

Special training is required to perform intricate surgery in the small recesses of the brain. Most skull base neurosurgical approaches require extreme dexterity with surgical instrumentation, specifically bone removal instruments, as surgeons must surgically navigate through restricted corridors that contain vital structures. This aspect of surgery demands that surgeons be proficient not only with the tools but also with the complex anatomy to be negotiated: the development of a highly refined sense of the anatomic relationships between neural and vascular structures encased by bone is critical and requires practice.

To this end, hands-on courses with cadaver dissection constitute the ideal training arena for neurosurgical residents and surgeons. Adequate preoperative training and rehearsal of complex approaches to the cranial base require that such exercises take place under conditions that simulate an actual operation as closely as possible.

This cutting edge skull base course was led by a world renowned international faculty. It constituted a unique first in the world of neurosurgery as it featured advanced 3D technology and employed virtual reality simulations to teach neurosurgeons and residents the necessary visuospacial skills to effectively navigate the various skull base neurosurgical approaches.

• Stereoscopy or 3-D presentation helps to improve trainees' conceptual grasp of complex anatomy and their understanding of visuospatial tasks.
• Virtual reality technology permits computed 3-D images obtained from cadaveric dissections to be manipulated conveniently with an intuitive immediacy similar to that of real medical subjects.

The Course was widely attended by surgeons from many different countries who came to Cornell to experience the latest advances in this novel teaching technology. It was given in our state-of-the-art surgical laboratory where each surgeon worked at a 3D interactive cadaver workstation. Surgeons could watch 3D dissections on cadavers live and review the surgical anatomy on 3D interactive models before and during their own dissection. The 3D technology allowed surgeons and residents to practice procedures in an environment in which mistakes have no dire consequences, lowering the risk associated with training on human patients and establishing standards and optimization of specific procedures.

The course was very successful and extremely well received. The combination of the 3D virtual reality environment and the cadaveric hands-on dissection afforded the surgeons excellent preoperative training and rehearsal of current, complex approaches in cranial base surgery.