Neurosurgery meeting and teaching in the Maldives 2019

The 3rd Annual Maldives Brain and Spine Conference was a great meeting. It had grown from our first meeting in 2017 to the present attendance of over 100 people from numerous countries. My neurosurgical guests from the U.S. included Rick Chua, M.D. from Tucson, Farrokh Farrokhi, M.D. from Seattle, Alison Bradywood, RN from Virginia Mason Hospital, and Rachel Bartle from Medtronic. The team taught several new surgical procedures including the first sacroiliac joint fusion in the Maldives. I was able to do post-op visits on two of our patients from the 2018 trip, including the first ALIF and first lumbar arthroplasty in the Maldives. Our host neurosurgeon, Dr. Ali Niyaf and the hosts from the ADK Hospital were absolutely wonderful.