Content uploaded by Deborah A Sival
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Deborah A Sival
Content may be subject to copyright.
Available via license: CC BY 2.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
BioMed Central
Page 1 of 1
(page number not for citation purposes)
Cerebrospinal Fluid Research
Open Access
Introduction
53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into
Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Hugh Richards1,2 and Deborah Sival*1,3
Address: 1Honorary Publication Secretaries, SRHSB, 2Neurosurgery Unit, Box 167, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK and
3Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, PO Box 30001, 9700RB Groningen,
The Netherlands
Email: Hugh Richards - hkr10@medschl.cam.ac.uk; Deborah Sival* - d.a.sival@bkk.umcg.nl
* Corresponding author
The 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into
Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida was held at Queen's Uni-
versity in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the invitation of the
local organizing committee; Stephen Brown, Nan Hill,
John McCann, Alan Bailie, David Marshall, Tabib Dabir,
Emma Kelly and Marie McGonnell.
Proceedings began as usual on Wednesday afternoon with
the Annual General Meeting of Members. This was fol-
lowed by a reception for all delegates and guests where we
were welcomed to Belfast by the Lord Mayor, Councillor
Naomi Long.
The scientific programme was opened by a welcome from
Dr. Michael McBride, Chief Medical Officer for Northern
Ireland, and included sessions on 'Spina Bifida: Incidence,
Survival and Cognitive Outcome', 'Hydrocephalus', 'Animal
Studies', 'Hydrocephalus Shunts', 'Long Term Management of
Spina Bifida Patients', 'Urology and Bowel Management' and
'Spina Bifida'. We also had two Invited Lectures, firstly
from Neil Buxton (Liverpool, UK), on 'Pain Management
in Spina Bifida: a Neurosurgical Perspective' and from Pro-
fessor Sivert Lindström, (Linköping, Sweden) on 'The
Bladder Cooling Test in Spina Bifida'. Retiring President,
Professor Ray Fitzgerald (Dublin, Ireland) gave his vale-
dictory lecture entitled 'Here and There with Hydrocephalus',
describing changes in treatment he has witnessed through
his long and distinguished career. Friday morning's pro-
gramme included a parallel break-out session on 'Long-
term Management of Children with Spina Bifida', aimed at
Nurses and Health Care Professionals.
The social programme continued on Thursday afternoon
with a visit to the Thompson Graving Dock. This dry dock
is where RMS Titanic underwent a final hull inspection in
February and March 1912 before final sea trials and sail-
ing to Southampton before sailing on her maiden voyage
on Wednesday 10th April. She hit an iceberg on the night
of Sunday 14th April and sank with the loss of over 1,500
lives. The afternoon continued with a visit to Stormont, the
home of the Northern Ireland Assembly at the invitation
of Michael McGimpsey, Minister of Health. We were able
to visit both assembly chambers and were then enter-
tained in the Great Hall by Belfast's Open Arts Community
Choir, a nationally acclaimed choir featuring people with
disabilities and those without, and traditional Irish music
from The O'Malley Experience. The final event of the social
programme was a gala dinner in the magnificent Great
Hall of Queen's University.
from 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Belfast, UK. 24-27 June 2009
Published: 27 November 2009
Cerebrospinal Fluid Research 2009, 6(Suppl 2):S1 doi:10.1186/1743-8454-6-S2-S1
<supplement> <title> <p>53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida</p> </title> <note>Meeting abstracts - A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1743-8454-6-S2-full.pdf">here</a>.</note> </supplement>
This article is available from: http://www.cerebrospinalfluidresearch.com/content/6/S2/S1
© 2009 Richards et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.