The collaborative partnership between FIENS, the University of Wisconsin Department of Neurological Surgery and the Neurosurgery and Neurology Institute (NNI) of Solidarity Bridge has entered its fourth year. Most recently, the UW team led a highly successful ventricular endoscopy course in Asunción, Paraguay. The course drew participation from nearly all neurosurgery residents in Paraguay, along with several practicing neurosurgeons from neighboring regions and countries.
The program featured formal lectures, case-based discussions, and a hands-on surgical workshop. Paraguayan faculty presented local cases, which were reviewed and discussed with course faculty to facilitate bilateral learning and exchange. In the days leading up to the course, the UW team partnered with Dr. Diego Servián at Hospital de Niños de Acosta Ñu to perform two endoscopic choroid plexus coagulation procedures on infants with hydrocephalus, marking the introduction of this critical procedure to the Paraguayan neurosurgical community.
The course was directed by Dr. Bermans Iskandar and supported by UW neurosurgery resident Dr. Lars Meisner, department chair Dr. Robert Dempsey (FIENS board chair), University of Miami resident Dr. Victor Lu, renowned Brazilian pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Roberto Dezena, and NNI leaders Dr. Richard Moser and Ms. Maria Eugenia Brockmann.
The event was officially hosted by the Paraguayan Congress of Neurosurgery as part of its national conference, led by Dr. Elio Marin, President of the Society of Neurological Surgery of the Southern Cone (Sociedad de Cirugía Neurológica del Cono Sur). Drs. Dempsey, Moser (FIENS board member), and Iskandar also served as featured speakers at the conference and led a highly attended mentoring session for medical students.
The UW/NNI collaboration continues to grow and has been enthusiastically received by the neurosurgical communities in both Bolivia and Paraguay.
To learn more about this successful collaboration, please click here. https://www.solidaritybridge.org/blog/2025/7/8/two-firsts-making-history-in-neurosurgery-in-paraguay
