Establishing the First Neurosurgical Skill Laboratory in West Africa: An Initiative for an Affordable Regional Education Center.

Background: The benefits of a neurosurgical skill laboratory (NSL) are unquestionable. Despite the increasing number of sub-Saharan African neurosurgeons, few cadaveric laboratories are available for neurosurgical education. The first of its kind in West Africa, a NSL opened in 2019 in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to promote neurosurgeons' education and technical skills.

Microsurgical Anatomy of the Labyrinthine Artery and Clinical Relevance.

Aim: To describe the origin, the course, and relationships of the labyrinthine artery (LA).

Material And Methods: Thanks to a colored silicone mix preparation, ten cranial bases were examined using x3 to x40 magnification under surgical microscope.

Results: The LA often arose from the meatal loop of the anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) (90%), or basilar artery (10%).

Microsurgical anatomy of distal medial striate artery (recurrent artery of Heubner).

Introduction: In literature, many controversies exist about courses and terminology of the distal medial striate artery (DMSA) or recurrent artery first described by Heubner near 1872. The purpose of this study was to define the accurate anatomy of this artery, to help the practitioners during surgery of the anterior cerebral-anterior communicating arteries (ACA-ACoA) complex.

Materials And Methods: 20 cranial bases were examined using magnification of the surgical microscope.

Classification of the terminal arterial vascularization of the appendix with a view to its use in reconstructive microsurgery.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the arterial vascularization of the appendix, in order to propose a classification of the different vascular types of the appendix for the realization of free transfer in reconstructive microsurgery.

Materials And Methods: We achieved the removal as a monobloc of the cecum, of a part of the ileum, and the upper colon, then conducted the intra-arterial injection of a mixture composed of minium, and went on to the dissection of 25 specimens of appendix from West Africa. We analyzed the appendicular territory vascularized by the different discovered arteries.