Registrations to this course have now closed. To enquire about space availability, please contact the course organisers via email: skullbasetraining@gmail.com.

Let's hear from the course attendees!

"Excellent balance of dissection plus lectures. Well spaced out."

"Course delves into a new and unique aspect of neurosurgery and really pushes us to our limits in terms of knowledge and surgical exercise. It is very relevant to expanded the armamentarium of the neurosurgeon."

"Very comprehensive, adequate time with the cadavers, excellent faculty."

"Excellent talks and anatomical demonstrations."

"The best course I have ever attended."

"Excellent teaching, structured, high quality."

"Long dissection time, amazing faculty."

A message from the Course Director

Mr Kumar Abhinav, Consultant Neurosurgeon and Course Director - January 2025

Welcome! This course focuses on expanded endoscopic endonasal approaches with a comprehensive overview of complementary open skull base and transorbital techniques. Aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of various complex pathologies, this course includes pituitary adenomas, meningiomas, sarcomas, and complex cerebrovascular conditions.

Acquiring three-dimensional knowledge of complex skull base anatomy is a starting step towards becoming a safe and successful cranial surgeon.

My own journey started with a laboratory-focused skull base fellowship spanning over 2 years at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC), with a further 2 years of clinical operative fellowships at Stanford University across cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgery (mentored by Professor Juan Fernandez Miranda).

My primary ethos is “from the laboratory to the operating room (OR)”.

Opportunities to repeatedly participate in laboratory-focused training are sparse. This shortage inspired our course’s programme; providing significant hands-on dissection time, including didactic lectures from experts in the discipline. Alongside Mr Warren Bennett, Course Co-Director and ENT consultant, I hope this course inspires your quest towards improving patient outcomes within complex skull base pathologies.

Programme summary

Explore the course programme in full by clicking here.

• 3D operative anatomy.
• Hands-on dissection with 2 participants per station.
• Expanded endoscopic endonasal approaches.
• Coverage of important transorbital approaches.
• 360-degree understanding of the skull base.
• Coverage of complex open approaches including relevant petrosal approaches.
• Lectures from international experts on operative nuances.
• Invited external and local faculty.
• Focus on complex pituitary adenomas, craniopharyngioma, tuberculum sella meningioma, chordomas, chondrosarcoma, petroclival and foramen magnum meningiomas.
• Review of operative videos.

For information on the local area, including recommended hotels and restaurants, click here.

Meet the faculty

For a detailed bio of each attending faculty, click here.

Otorhinolaryngology

Mr. Warren Bennett, Bristol - Course Co-Director.
Gerald McGarry, Glasgow.
Louise Melia, Bath.
Jayakar Nayak, Stanford, USA.

Neurosurgery

Mr. Kumar Abhinav, Bristol - Course Director.
Sebastien Froelich, Paris, France.
Simon Cudlip, Oxford.
Thomas Santarius, Cambridge.
James Liu, New Jersey, USA.
Madison Michael, Memphis, USA.
Juan Fernandez-Miranda, Stanford, USA.
Michel Roethlisberger, Basel, Switzerland.
Adam Williams, Bristol.
Mario Teo, Bristol.
David Porter, Bristol.
Paul Gardner, Pittsburgh, USA.
George Malcolm, Bristol.

Oculoplastics

Rebecca Ford, Bristol.
Samantha Hunt, Bristol.