RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), approximately 5 million essential neurosurgical operations per year remain unaddressed. When compared with high-income countries, one of the reasons for this disparity is the lack of microsurgery training laboratories and neurosurgeons trained in microsurgical techniques. In 2020, we founded the Madison Microneurosurgery Initiative to provide no-cost, accessible, and sustainable microsurgery training opportunities to health care professionals from LMICs in their respective countries. METHODS: We initially focused on enhancing our expertise in microsurgery laboratory training requirements. Subsequently, we procured a wide range of stereo microscopes, light sources, and surgical instrument sets, aiming to develop affordable, high-quality, and long-lasting microsurgery training kits. We then donated those kits to neurosurgeons across LMICs. After successfully delivering the kits to designated locations in LMICs, we have planned to initiate microsurgery laboratory training in these centers by providing a combination of live-streamed, offline, and in-person training assistance in their institutions. RESULTS: We established basic microsurgery laboratory training centers in 28 institutions across 18 LMICs. This was made possible through donations of 57 microsurgery training kits, including 57 stereo microscopes, 2 surgical microscopes, and several advanced surgical instrument sets. Thereafter, we organized 10 live-streamed microanastomosis training sessions in 4 countries: Lebanon, Paraguay, Türkiye, and Bangladesh. Along with distributing the recordings from our live-streamed training sessions with these centers, we also granted them access to our microsurgery training resource library. We thus equipped these institutions with the necessary resources to enable continued learning and hands-on training. Moreover, we organized 7 in-person no-cost hands-on microanastomosis courses in different institutions across Türkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Paraguay. A total of 113 surgical specialists successfully completed these courses. CONCLUSION: Our novel approach of providing microsurgery training kits in combination with live-streamed, offline, and in-person training assistance enables sustainable microsurgery laboratory training in LMICs.
RESUMO
Since the inception of the International Fellowship (IF) Program in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, training has been provided to 219 residents, neurosurgeons, and medical students from 18 countries and five continents. These IFs took a long academic and geographic journey to improve their skills in patient care. The advanced training, they received lead to 14 of these IF neurosurgeons to return to their hometowns with higher academic appointments, including two chairmen, seven professors, two associate professors, two assistant professors, and one consultant neurosurgeon. An additional measure of success for the IF Program is that fellows continue to communicate with their mentors and with their prior fellow international colleagues long after their fellowship ends.