Intraoperative Neurophysiology in Yangon Neurosurgery.

IOM Team, Neurosurgical department, Yangon General hospital, University 1

Another important step was achieved in Yangon University Hospital this year: the first intraoperative neurophysiological monitored (IOM) tumor surgeries were performed! IOM is a complex methodology that increases safety of brain surgery. Although IOM is standard of care in neurosurgical centers of excellency worldwide, many developing neurosurgical units do not have IOM yet due to lack of knowledge, skills and appropriate instruments. In 2017, SNI and the medical faculty of the Medical University of Yangon 1 decided to introduce state-of-the-art IOM to Myanmar, despite the complexity of the task. In a first step, SNI invited and sponsored the neurologist Moe Zaw Myint and two IOM technicians for six months scholarships to the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland to learn the techniques under the supervision of the local IOM head, Kathleen Seidel, and SNI neurosurgeons. Kathleen Seidel and SNI organized the acquisition of appropriate IOM instruments. An SNI team (Philippe Schucht, Janine Abu-Isa, Dominique Kuhlen and Irena Zubak, as well as Kathleen Seidel as the head of this project) went to Yangon to perform the first IOM cases together with the Yangon team. To ensure correct machine settings, material and knowledge the first cases have been supervised and now Yangon IOM is ready to go. Intraoperative Neurophysiology will allow functional guidance and real-time feedback of neurological function, during tumor surgeries in brain and spinal cord in Myanmar. Another milestone reached for improved neurosurgical care in Myanmar!

First IOM patient in Yangon