Dear Colleagues,

The last 9^th Advanced Course organized by the European Society of Neuroradiology held in Malta, from 8^th to 10^th of November 2018 was a great success, thanks to the quality of the Faculty and the interest of participants. Specifically, the last day “hands-on” day at the Mater Dei hospital on anthropomorphic phantoms was particularly appreciated by both Specialists and Participants, who asked for a longer one.

There are many Congresses and Courses about Spine, but there’s a worldwide need to have more practical Courses, such as a course where devices can be evaluated together with the Specialists, and can be used on phantoms, cadavers or patients, to learn “how-to-do” a specific procedure.

The European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR), and myself as Chairperson for Spine, decided to create an official “Spine Full Hands-On course”, that differs from the well-known Advanced ESNR Spine Course, with a new formula.

The “Spine Full Hands-On” will consist of a three-days Course, fully dedicated to practice: that means, a short presentation of case-topic, quick discussion (30 min) about the procedure to be used, technical evaluation of the device, then two International Tutors will show the procedure first, followed by all the participants, that will repeat the treatment for the rest of the day on high-quality anthropomorphic phantoms.

All the main basic procedures (as ISI, vertebral augmentation, disc and facet procedures) together with the most advanced procedures (interspinous spacer, screws, fixation, tumor ablation, etc) will be discussed and shown.

As for the last meeting, we plan 2 rooms fully dedicated to US-guided procedures, 1 or 2 rooms for Virtual Simulator, Augmented Reality & Holographic surgical software planning, 2 rooms for the Xray – guided procedures, and a 5^th room for the hybrid C-arm/CT-guided procedures. Participants will be divided in groups and rotate over the 5 rooms during the three days.

This year we chose Malta. Malta is a marvelous country, with excellent weather in October, a perfect location in the Mediterranean Sea and a sparkling touristic center. Malta airport is a great hub with direct flight to almost all the EU and extra EU countries.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Spine Full Hands-On Course in October

Prof. Luigi Manfre