Kenny Liu - 08 May 2007 08:12 AM
any current or previous grads of the various endovascular fellowships want to comment on their experiences? please comment on types and variety of case loads, hands-on experience, research experience, and whether you thought it was helpful or not.
also: which are the best endovascular fellowships out there for neurosurgical residents?
For the most part you can either be trained by a neurosurgeon (neurosurgeon run fellowships are relatively new excluding Rosenwasser’s and Hopkin’s fellowships at Buffalo and Jefferson) or a neuroradiologist.
The reason the Buffalo and Jefferson fellowships are so highly regarded is because Nick Hopkins and Robert Rosenwasser were some of the very first neurosurgeons to be dual trained in endovascular. As a result they have had the longest influence on neurosurgeons entering the field both directly (by training others) and indirectly by talking at meetings etc. It doesn’t hurt Jefferson that they may have the highest clinical volume of aneurysms in the country (Neurosurgery:Supplement “Endovascular Neurosurgery” Nov 2006, 59:5 Page S95).
The UCLA fellowship is run by radiologists, that is where Guglielmi (of GDC acronym-Guglielmi Detachable Coils) and Vinuela are. Vinuela runs the ship I believe. These guys revolutionized neuroendovascular with the invention of the detachable platinum coils.
UCSF is where Higashida is (also a Radiologist), I don’t know much about him, but have always heard the program is top notch.
Just like doing a fellowship in open cerebrovascular is really about WHO you are doing your fellowship with… not where. It is important to know who the big names are in the field. The radiologists that are famous on the level of Rosenwasser and Hopkins (some on a higher level of fame) in the field of neuroendovascular include:
Alejandro Berenstein (Beth Israel, Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgeyr, NY,NY; major inovator of the field, trained neurosurgeons Rosenwasser, Howard Riina, Prestiacomo, John Scott and John Pryor (think he’s a neurosurgoen at MGH?, as well as training John Pile-Spellman and Peter Kim Nelson both pre-eminant interventional neuroradiologists)
Peter Kim Nelson (NYU, Inventor of the Neuroform stent)
Jacque Dion (Emory)
Fernando Vinuela (UCLA)
Charles Kerber (UCSD)
The number of fellowships have swelled to around 60 or more. Some require 2 years, some require 1 year prep in residency and fellowship only 1 year.
Some fellowships I looked into when I was applying:
UW - Gavin Britz
OHSU - Stanley Barnwell
UCSF - Halbach, Higashida
UCLA - Vinuela (One of the original fathers of neuroendovascular)
UCSD - Kerber (one of the original fathers of neuroendovascular)
UTSW - Philip Purdy (3 year combined fellowship offered with Duke Sampson for open cerebrovascular)
Barrow - McDougal, Albequerqe (additional year with Spetzler possible)
Embory - Dion (one of the original fathers of endovascular)
Vanderbilt - Mericle (trained by Art Day and Nick Hopkins)
Cornell - Riina (trained by Spetzler and Berenstein)
Beth Israel, NY - Berenstein (one of the originals, however doesn’t let fellows do much hands on by rumor)
Duke - Alexander
SUNY Buffalo - Hopkins (I think he trained at UCLA with Vinuela)
Jefferson - Rosenwasser (I think he was also trained by Charles Drake and in endovascular by Berenstein)
Cleveland Clinic - Masaryk
Northwestern - Bendok
Walter Reed -Armonda (didn’t apply to this one, but know he was trained by Rosenwasser and is a neurosurgeon also)
Iowa - Chaloupka
USC - Teitelbaum
U Western Ontario - Lownie (protege of Charles Drake, trained also in endovascular at UCLA)
Hope this list helps
BTW, I’m starting my fellowship soon, and am not currently a fellow… so take the information with a grain of salt
