Spine Full Hands-On Course “Europe”

Italy - Catania, October 13-16, 2022

a 4-days Full Immersion in the World of Spine Interventions

My dear Friends,

As Chair for Spine of the European Society of Neuroradiology, I have the pleasure and honor to organize the new ESNR Spine Full Hands-On Course, planned every year in Europe, at the end of the year, and in Middle East Country, at the beginning of.

Both the Hands-On courses (“Europe” and “Middle East”) were created “de-novo” in 2019 with a different formula when compared to the ESNR Advanced Course in Spine Radiology, the joint meeting we organize together with the European Society of Skeletal Radiology ESSR. The first Hands-On (Malta 2019) was fully booked with Attendees coming from European (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, UK) as well as from non-EU Countries (Israel, Kuwait, Malaysia, Perú, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and United States).

As you know, the mission of the ESNR Spine Full Hands-On Course is illustrating “what we do” and “how we do it”, showing almost all the spine percutaneous treatments, using different procedures, different brands for the same procedure, and different ways (Ultrasounds–, Fluoro-, CT- & Virtual- assisted operations) that can be adopted.

The Hands On -see the Program on our ESNR website- will start in October, Thursday morning the 13th, with a “Pills of Theory” fast session: I intentionally called it “pills” and reduced the presentation time to 15 minutes maximum, as I imagined a 95% practical course. After that, al the Attendees will be subdivided in 4 groups, and we will start the Hands On with “Virtual Reality” & US-guided procedures” in the afternoon. X-ray-guided procedures will be showed on day 14th (“basic procedures”) and 15th (“advanced procedures”), using simultaneously 4 rooms (3 C-arm rooms, 1 hybrid CT+C-arm station). The last day, Sunday the 16th, will be dedicated back again to US, X-ray guided procedures, to MR-assisted and weight-bearing procedures, and to the Diploma practical examinations (only for those who applied for the Interventional Diploma in Spine Radiology-EDiSR “Interventional”).

All the sessions will be supported by a total of 16 worldwide well-known International Tutors, and all practical activities will be performed on dedicated Spine phantoms, so that each Attendee should be able to have the chance to perform at least 1 procedure per kind.

Last but not least, Sicily is usually nice in October, and I’m sure you will appreciate Mediterranean food, weather and Friendship.

Again, looking forward to restarting & seeing you soon in Sicily

All my best,

Prof. Luigi Manfrè
Course Director
Chairperson, ESNR Spine Subspeciality Committee
Member, ESNR Executive Committee