During the XXI Congress of the Spanish Neurosurgery Society (SENEC), held this May in Barcelona, the 2017 “Sixto Obrador” Prize was awarded to an original research work carried out at the Hospital Universitario de La Ribera and the CEU University Cardinal Herrera of Valencia, within the CEU-NISA Foundation Neuroscience Cathedra.
The award-winning research has been developed by the Neurosurgery team led by Dr Jose Piquer Belloch, head of the Neurosurgery Service, director-founder of the Cathedra and President of our Foundation.
With the title “Microsurgical anatomy and demonstration through tractography of the main white matter projection beams of the human brainstem”, the project has been led by Dr Ruben Rodriguez Mena, together with the other members of the Neurosurgery Service: Drs. Jose Piquer, Jose Luis Llacer, Pedro Riesgo and Vicente Rovira.
This is an anatomical microdissection study, for which the facilities and resources of the neuroanatomy laboratories of the Hospital de la Ribera and the CEU Cardenal Herrera University of Valencia have been used, complemented by the study of tensor-based tractography images. of diffusion, obtained from brain magnetic resonance imaging of healthy subjects. This research work, which received the corresponding approval from the Ethics Committee, also had the collaboration of Dr Enrique Molla, a specialist in radiodiagnosis in the Neuro-radiology Area of the Hospital de la Ribera.
According to Dr Jose Piquer, professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences at CEU-UCH, “the results obtained in the research project awarded by SENEC allow its application to the clinical practice setting, improving the interpretation of magnetic resonance images and brain tractography. They also complement the critical and exhaustive analysis of the location and anatomical relationships of possible lesions that may be located inside the brainstem and cerebellum, and favor proper management and surgical indication, including the preoperative selection of optimal strategies and possible areas of approaches to its interior”.
The SENEC “Sixto Obrador” Award has, since 1980, aimed to recognize unpublished works considered to be of greater merit that deal with topics related to Neurosurgery. With an endowment of € 5,000, it is considered one of the most prestigious international awards in neuroscience field.
The Neurosurgery Service of the Hospital de la Ribera and the CEU-NISA Foundation Neuroscience Cathedra, awarded for this research, collaborate closely in the promotion and development of high-impact academic and research activities in the field of neuroscience, with the final objective of improving the quality of education and neurosurgical care in this health center.
