Report of the 11th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School

The 11th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School was held from 30th January to 2nd February 2024. The
local organizing committee were PD Dr Thomas Meinel, PD Dr Tomas Dobrocky, Prof. Urs Fischer, Prof.
Jan Gralla, Prof. Simon Jung, PD Dr Eike Piechowiak and Dr Sara Pilgram-Pastor. Alice Caneva, Selini
Tsimachidis and Martin Zbinden provided administrative support.

The primary aim of the ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School is to bring together neurologists and
neuroradiologists from all over the world to share knowledge on how to enhance interdisciplinary
acute management of stroke patients. The fact that this was already the 11th edition of the Winter
School and that the number of international applications is continually increasing is a clear statement
that this concept is needed now more than ever to help practitioners to deploy state-of-the-art stroke
treatment across Europe.

The committee had the difficult task of selecting 67 participants from 294 applications. Participants
came from 23 different countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech
Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

This year’s Stroke Winter School started on 30th January 2024 with a welcome from PD Dr Dobrocky
and PD Dr Meinel. Prof. Peter Kelly represented the European Stroke Organization (ESO) and Prof. Jan
Gralla the European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT) and the
Interventional Neuroradiology Section of the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR).

The 37 speakers including neurologists, interventional and non-interventional neuroradiologists,
neurosurgeons and neuropaediatricians led challenging discussions. The teaching programme included
32 lectures and 8 tutorials with a focus on interdisciplinary acute management of stroke. There were
sessions on stroke imaging, treatment strategies including endovascular approaches, stroke treatment
in difficult circumstances and requirements for setting up an interdisciplinary stroke centre. Because
many previously open questions related to thrombectomy can now be considered settled, novel topics
such as intracranial haemorrhage, cerebral venous thrombosis, carotid webs, ocular and spinal
ischaemic stroke and acute revascularization, as well as optimal management of transient ischaemic
attack could be included in the completely updated programme. The programme update also provided
opportunities for a younger, more diverse faculty with greater representation of females, fostering a
new generation of international stroke experts.

In the afternoons, tutorials were organized separately for neurologists and neuroradiologists.
Neurologists were able to learn about neuroangiography from an interventional neuroradiologist and
were taught about interpreting CT and MRI by two non-interventional neuroradiologists.
Neuroradiologists had the opportunity to learn in small groups about endovascular procedures,
management of complications, neurological examination (NIHSS) and advanced imaging in stroke. In
addition, both groups of participants were able to discuss interesting and challenging cases with
neurologists and interventional neuroradiologists.

A special highlight for the neurointerventionalists were the hands-on teaching sessions with the animal
model. Small groups of six participants were given the opportunity to perform diagnostic angiography
and endovascular treatment procedures such as thrombectomy with multiple devices. In addition,
simulators helped participants to improve their manual skills in mechanical thrombectomy.

Another highlight was the stroke simulation course: stroke physicians and neuroradiologists took part
in a real-life setting with simulated clinical stroke cases. Physicians had to take care of the stroke
patient and to decide on acute stroke management while being observed by colleagues and
professionals, after which they received feedback on their performance.

Thanks are due to the following sponsors, who contributed to the realization of the Stroke Winter
School:
Angels, Balt, Cerenovus, Medtronic, Microvention, OM Pharma, Penumbra, RapidAI, Siemens
Healthineers, Stryker, Vascular-Medical and Wallaby Phenox.

The local organizing committee thanks all the invited speakers for giving their time and effort to the
Stroke Winter School and for delivering such high-quality lectures. Their interest in and passion for
teaching the upcoming generation of stroke physicians and neurointerventionalists was evident.

We are pleased to announce that the 12th ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School will be held from
28th to 31st January 2025 in Berne.