Winter Section Meeting Planned for Spokane
David Gruber, MD

Nishinomiya Japanese Gardens in Spokane, Wash. Credit: Spokane Regional CVB/Alan Bisson

The dates for the meeting have been changed to Dec. 2–5, 2008. A nursing and midlevel seminar is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 1, with official meeting functions and events to begin the following day. The previous meeting dates (Dec. 3–6), as selected by the AANS, were changed to accommodate the timeline which has been established during the last five meetings.

Renee Jenkins, MD, the current president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has accepted our invitation to attend the meeting and address the section as the Raimondi speaker. Additionally, the Scientific Committee has been selected, and the abstract center is scheduled to open on May 1.

ISPN to Meet in Cape Town this Fall
Rick Abbott, MD

The International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery will hold its 2008 annual scientific meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, from Sunday, Oct. 12, through Thursday, Oct. 16. On Friday, Oct. 17, there will be a post-meeting seminar on monitoring. The annual scientific meeting of the ISPN has gained increasing importance over the past decade and it now is the meeting of note for our European and Asian colleagues.

The venue is attractive not only for the obvious potential for seeing the game parks of South Africa and its neighbors and breathtaking sites like Victoria Falls in Zambia. The meeting also will give you the opportunity to explore the immediate environs of Cape Town. Cape Town has become a major destination for tourism. Daily trips are planned to explore Cape Town and its immediate vicinity.

Conde Nast’s readers have voted our hotel, Table Bay Hotel, No. 1 in Africa. It looks out onto the Victoria and Alfred Harbor. You will travel from it daily to the meeting via a ferry across the harbor to the BOE Conference Center in the shadow of Table Mountain.

Information about the meeting is available on the Web at www.ispn2008.org. This site also contains information about booking a safari. Another good site for information on safaris in Kruger National Park is www.krugerpark.co.za.

This is going to be a memorable meeting, and I look forward to seeing you and your family in Cape Town.

Pediatric Section Activities at the 2008 CNS Meeting
Sarah J. Gaskill, MD

The Pediatric Section has two programs of special interest at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting in Orlando, Sept. 20–25, 2008.

On Tuesday afternoon we have planned a program entitled Treatment of Spasticity in the Pediatric Population. On Wednesday afternoon the first pediatric integrated medical learning, or IML, program will be presented with the title of Arrested Hydrocephalus: To Treat or Not to Treat? This program will focus on discussion of fractured and outgrown shunts and the decision to treat or not to treat. All CNS members will be invited to participate by completing a premeeting survey and reading three selected articles, then coming to the live IML and completing a post-survey questionnaire. We need active participation to have a meaningful work product as we are expected to demonstrate that our CME opportunities have an impact on practice.

Once again, I invite any section members who wish to participate in the programming of the section by serving as moderators, judges, or abstract reviewers to contact me. If anyone has a particular topic or presenter they would like to hear at upcoming meetings feel free to contact me at sgaskill@mac.com.

4th Fred J. Epstein International Symposium on New Horizons in Pediatric Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Fibromatosis

This symposium for pediatric neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, neuro-oncologists, neurogeneticists, neuroscientists, perinatologists and pediatricians, will be held in Eilat, Israel, March 15–19, 2009.

The symposium will provide an update in the diagnoses and management of diseases of the nervous system in infants and children that may be treated surgically. An emphasis will be placed on joint, rather than parallel sessions with both neurological and neurosurgical approaches.

The faculty is composed of recognized leaders in their respective fields. Special attention will be given to controversial issues of common interest in patient management, new surgical-neuroradiological techniques and oncological options.

The conference will be conducted in English.

Conference organizers are: Shlomi Constantini, and Shaul Harel, Israel; and Rick Abbott, Susan Bressman, Kathy Epstein, Roger J. Packer, and Shlomo Shinnar, United States.

Details can be found on the course Web site, www.fredhorizons.com. Additional information is available from the secretariat: Target Conferences Ltd, PO Box 29041, Tel Aviv 61290, Israel, Tel: +972 3 5175150, Fax: +972 3 5175155, e-mail: newhorizons@targetconf.com.