Christmas letter by IFNE President

Dear members of the International Federation of Neuroendoscopy,

Another strange year comes to an end. Although we all had hoped that in 2021 the pandemic would be overcome, the disaster went on. With the appearance of the Omicron variant, it may get worse if the epidemiologists are right. But nevertheless, IFNE will continue to provide educational events. With better vaccination status, more and more physical meetings should be possible such as the Homburg neuroendoscopy week organized by Joachim Oertel in September and the nice IFNE hands-on course in Moscow organized by Sergey Gorelyshev in November 2021. We think that these courses were a glimpse into the future.  Our next major educational event will be the comprehensive Naples neuroendoscopy course to be held from February 28 to March 4, 2022. We look forward to a physical meeting with face-to-face discussions. Additionally, we plan to have our postponed interim meeting in Hyderabad, India in autumn 2022. As you all already know, the World Congress of Neuroendoscopy to be held in Singapore had to be shifted again. The new date, November 18 to 22, 2023 should allow us to have a major gathering of neuroendoscopy enthusiasts from all over the world. I am sure that our Congress Chairman Sew Wan Tew, and our Scientific Committee Chairman, Luigi Cavallo, will put an interesting meeting together.

Please find attached the minutes of our General Assembly on November 20, 2021. The GA was required according to our bylaws, because our members had to decide about voting a new Executive Board. Usually, our elections take place during the World Congress of Neuroendoscopy. Since our congress had been postponed to 2023, it was proposed to postpone the election as well to 2023 when the 10th IFNE World Congress will take place in Singapore. All participants unanimously agreed. In the name of the entire EB, I thank all members for their trust into the current EB.

Finally, I wish you and your families a merry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year. Hopefully, you can find some rest during the coming holidays at the end of this challenging year.


Henry W. S. Schroeder
President, International Federation of Neuroendoscopy
Greifswald, December 22, 2023