Project to Improve Treatment of Neurovascular Pathologies in Sub-Saharan Africa: Pilot Phase at General Hospital of Yaoundé, Cameroon 🇨🇲

on-site operating room instruction with Prof. Dr. Athanasios Petridis (at General Hospital of Yaoundé)

Clipping of PcomA aneurysm after months-old aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) with one straight clip & exploration of the MCA bifurcation to exclude possibility of a second aneurysm because of suspicions after CT angiography review.
The operation was a full success!


Aim of project:
This project aims to improve the care of patients with vascular neurosurgery in Sub-Saharan Africa: a pilot phase in Cameroon.
The main goal is to improve the ability of physicians in underserved regions to diagnose & treat patients suffering from neurovascular diseases. We aim to accomplish this with a collaborative center-to-center program between an advanced vascular neurosurgical center led by Prof. Dr. Athanasios Petridis (Prof. of Neurosurgery at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany) and a center in an underserved region led by Prof. Vincent Djientcheu (General Hospital of Yaoundé, Cameroon) that wants to improve knowledge & management of neurovascular pathologies.

Tools for teaching:
This will be done over a period of 3 years through:
  1) monthly neurosurgical hybrid webinars (with in-person & remote online attendees) on various topics related to the field;
  2) monthly one-hour tele-educational clinical grand rounds;
  3) in-person visits of some mentors to the mentee site, organization of a vascular neurosurgical educational symposium with teaching cases on-site in the operating room.

Project status: Ongoing (over 50 vascular surgeries with good outcomes in the past year, as of 2023)
Start date: January 2021
Proposed end date: January 2024
Latest on-site visit: 04/07/21 until 04/21/21 [more recent visits not listed]
Language(s): English
Location: General Hospital of Yaoundé, Cameroon; Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Coordination: Francis Fezeu, President of Brain Global
Contact person: Francis Fezeu, President of Brain Global
  – e-mail: brainglobal.contact@gmail.com
Patient age: All ages
Project type(s): Clinical, Global Health, Capacity Building, Healthcare Professional Education
Funding source(s): Private Foundations, Nonprofit Organizations, Personal, Professional Societies
Project need(s):
  1) Volunteers (clinical assistance and training in vascular neurosurgery, physicians/neurosurgeons/didactic lecturers);
  2) Equipment (contemporary vascular neurosurgical imaging, operating room equipment, microsurgical instruments, disposables, drills);
  3) Funding;
  4) Assistance with creating a full research partnership with joint research projects and academic exchange

Special thanks: We want to thank the A. I. and Manet Schepps Foundation in the U.S. for their very generous donation that helped us kick-start the project and fund equipment needed for surgeries! We would also like to thank ARZT hilft e.V. in Germany for additional funding as well as administrative assistance! This is truly an international collaboration and undertaking; without all of your help, we could have never accomplished our goals in Cameroon.

live hybrid webinar on vascular neurosurgery (with residents & online attendees)