Neurosurgery symposium discusses skullbase surgery

With the drop of traumatic injuries and the development of testing, cerebral vascular disease is becoming a leading ailment in neurosurgery department, medical experts said on an international skullbase surgery symposium in the city over the weekend.

The symposium was initiated by Dr Takanori Fukushima, a leading neurosurgeon who plans to cultivate 300 neurosurgeons in China within 10 years.

He was honored with a Magnolia Silver Award this year by the Shanghai government for his service and devotion to Shanghai’s medical system.

Some 150 professionals from home and abroad participated in the symposium, on which the neurosurgery branch of Shanghai Private Medical Facility Association was established to boost the development of neurosurgery in private hospitals under the current health reform.

Doctors said cerebral vascular diseases can cover 40 percent of all cases in the neurosurgery department.

“We see more Moyamoya disease, a disorder of blood vessels in the brain,” said Dr Liu Weidong, president of Shanghai Punan Hospital. “The disease is related with genes and people with a family history has 42 times higher possibility in having the disease than other people.”

“People can have outburst in any age, while four and 34 are the peak time,” he said. “Surgery is a treatment to the disease.”