Program Requirements for Residency/Fellowship Education in Neuroendovascular Surgery/Interventional Neuroradiology: Special Report on Graduate Medical Education

Abstract

NEUROENDOVASCULAR SURGERY/INTERVENTIONAL NEURORADIOLOGY is a relatively new subspecialty that has been evolving since the mid-1970s. During the last 2 decades, significant advances have been made in this field of minimally invasive therapy for the treatment of intracranial cerebral aneurysms; acute stroke therapy intervention; cerebral arteriovenous malformations; carotid-cavernous sinus fistulae; head, neck, and spinal cord vascular lesions; and other complex cerebrovascular diseases. Advanced postresidency fellowship programs have now been established in North America, Europe, and Japan, specifically for training in this new subspecialty. During a period of 14 years, from 1986 to the present, an ad hoc committee comprising senior executive committee members of the American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology, the Joint Section of Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery, and the American Society of Neuroradiology met to establish general guidelines that were mutually agreeable to both societies for training physicians in this field. These training standard guidelines were unanimously endorsed by the Executive Committee of the Joint Section of Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery in April 1999, by the Executive Committee of the American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology and the American Society of Neuroradiology in May 1999, and by the Executive Council of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons in June 1999. The guidelines for residency/fellowship education have now been endorsed by the parent organizations of both the interventional and diagnostic neuroradiology communities, as well as both senior organizations representing neurosurgery in North America. These guidelines for training should be used as a reference and guide by any institution establishing a training program in neuroendovascular surgery/interventional neuroradiology.