Cambridge Lectures In Neurosurgical Anatomy

Dr Gentili has been a Staff at the Department of Neurosurgery of the Toronto Western Hospital since 1982. After his residency in neurosurgery in Toronto Dr Gentili spent two years (1979 – 1981) as a fellow with Professor Yasargil in Zurich and Professor Lindsey Symon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

Currently, Dr Gentili is a Professor of Surgery and the Director of Skull Base Centre at the University of Toronto. Dr Gentili’s large clinical practice focuses on skull base, neurovascular and pituitary surgery. He has an extensive operative experience which is internationally renowned. Not only was he involved in the establishment of the discipline “skull base neurosurgery” through the North American Skull Base Society, but he always continued to innovate, more recently in the area of endoscopic skull base techniques.

Dr Gentili has inspired a multitude of trainees and fellows from all over the world, as a true Master Surgeon with comprehensive knowledge of operative and microsurgical neuroanatomy. Whoever witnessed Dr Gentili operate would truly appreciate the meaning of “meticulous” surgery.

There is hardly an international meeting of importance that would not have Professor de Oliveira either as a speaker or a panellist. Professor de Oliveira’s name has been closely associated with neurosurgical anatomy and microsurgical technique. He obtained his medical degree from Santa Catarina Federal University School of Medicine in Florianopolis in Brazil in 1969. His neurosurgical residency in Montevideo in Uruguay followed by a fellowship in microsurgical anatomy at the University in Florida in Gainesville. Dr de Oliveira maintains a close association with the Department of Neurosurgery and the University of Florida where he has been an Associate Professor from 1989 and Professor of Neurosurgery from 1996. Between 1985 and 1998 Dr de Oliveira headed the São Paulo Neurological Institute and subsequently became the Director of the Institute of Neurological Sciences in São Paulo while heading the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical Sciences School, State University of Campinas – UNICAMP. Dr de Oliveira is the President of the Brazilian Neurosurgical Congress in 2008.

There is hardly any cranial region or surgical approach that has not Dr de Oliveira’s name attached to it. Dr de Oliveira has been a co-author of numerous seminal publications in neurosurgical anatomy and microsurgical techniques, and the textbook he co-edited with Dr Laligam Sekhar Cranial Microsurgery: Approaches and Techniques is a classic. Professor de Oliveira has not only published extensively, but he generously shares his surgical knowledge and skill around the globe. Professor de Oliveira is the Director of an excellent annual hands-on course in neurosurgical anatomy based in Braga, Portugal.

Professor Guilherme C. Ribas obtained his medical degree from the Federal University of São Paulo in São Paulo in 1977. Between 1978 and 1982 he trained in neurosurgery at the University of São Paulo under Professor Gilberto Machado de Almeida and at the University of Virginia under Professor John A. Jane. In 1985 he was a visiting research fellow at Professor Albert Rhoton’s laboratory at the University of Florida.

He obtained a doctorate in Neurology in 1991 and in 2005 became a Professor of Surgery at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School. He is oversees graduate and post-graduate courses in neuroanatomy at the Department of Surgery headed by Professor Aldo Junqueira Rodrigues Jr. Professor Ribas’ research focused on microneurosurgical anatomy and on cranial neurosurgical techniques has produced numerous high-impact publications in this field. His neurosurgical practice is based at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo, and he specialises in surgery for intrinsic and extrinsic brain tumours.

Since 1995 Professor Ribas teaches Surgical Neuroanatomy at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Virginia, where in 1997 he was appointed Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery. He also serves as a faculty on “Sulcus, Gyrus and Ventricles” hands on course in neurosurgical anatomy held also annually in Braga, Portugal, since 2003, together with Professors Evandro de Oliveira, Albert Rhoton, Ugur Ture and Antonio Cesar Mussi. He was the fist guest speaker of the Cambridge Lectures in Neurosurgical Anatomy in 2005 and since has served as a faculty and organiser of this course.

Professor Ribas is a keen photographer and he managed to carry this passion with him into the field of neurosurgical education. Professor Ribas is one of the pioneers of neurosurgical 3D photography, projection and printing. His world class collection of anatomical and per-operative images stands out not only because of cleverly planned and meticulously prepared dissections, the clarity of photography, but also because of its exceptional aesthetic value.

Recent publications in the field of neurosurgical surgical anatomy:

Professor de Tribolet studied medicine in Lausanne and Paris. He began his post-graduate career with an internship in neurosurgery, neurophysiology and neuropathology in Lausanne. He then moved to Boston where he completed a fellowship in neuropathology under Dr Raymond Adams. Dr Adams and Dr William Sweet, and later Dr Charles Wilson at UCSF have inspired his academic career that has focused on the biology of brain tumours. He was appointed a Professor of Neurosurgery and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Lausanne in 1984. Ten years later he oversaw the merger of neurosurgical departments of the Lausanne and Geneva Universities, and has been their chairman since. Professor de Tribolet has contributed to more than 300 papers dealing with a range of clinical and basic science problems.

Professor de Tribolet has been the President of the Swiss Society of Neurosurgery, Treasurer of the WFNS, and Chairman of the Training Committee of the EANS. He has served on editorial boards of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Clinical Neurosciences, Operative Techniques in Neurosurgery, Techniques in Neurosurgery, Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery and British Journal of Neurosurgery.

Professor de Tribolet is internationally renowned for his mastery in pituitary, posterior fossa tumour and vascular surgery, yet maintaining highest skills in virtually all areas of neurosurgery. For example, his surgery and teaching of far lateral approach for herniated disk are well known. On the course he will share his extensive experience of surgery in the posterior fossa.