Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2026
Modeling Posthemorrhagic Hydrocephalus of Prematurity in Rats
Published on: March 28, 2025
Mobile endoscopy: a treatment and training model for childhood hydrocephalus
Mubashir Mahmood Qureshi1, Jose Piquer, Paul Henry Young
1Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. moody_qureshi@yahoo.com
Insights
This study introduces a portable neuroendoscopy model to treat hydrocephalus in underserved regions, successfully training local staff and performing over 250 procedures. This approach enhances neurosurgical care accessibility and expertise in developing areas.
Area of Science:
- Neurosurgery
- Medical Technology
- Global Health
Background:
- Hydrocephalus presents significant challenges in developing regions like Sub-Saharan Africa due to resource limitations and lack of trained personnel.
- Conventional training for neuroendoscopic procedures is lengthy and requires specialized centers, hindering widespread adoption.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a novel, portable neuroendoscopy approach for treating hydrocephalus in remote areas.
- To assess the impact of this model on training local neurosurgical specialists, residents, and nursing staff.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a single portable neuroendoscopy system for a mobile, outreach model.
- Conducted procedures at regional hospitals away from major tertiary care centers.
- Integrated hands-on training for local medical professionals.
Main Results:
- Successfully performed over 250 neuroendoscopic ventriculostomy procedures across 21 hospital sites in seven countries.
- Provided hands-on training to 62 neurosurgeons/residents and 110 operating room nurses.
- Demonstrated the efficacy of a portable system in resource-limited settings.
Conclusions:
- Neuroendoscopy is a vital surgical tool for regions like East Africa.
- This approach represents a sustainable model for developing complex surgical specialties in underserved areas.
Background:
Hydrocephalus, largely a disease of poverty in many developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, becomes even more challenging to treat because of lack of trained neurosurgical personnel, inadequately equipped public health care facilities, meager resource allocation, high rates of neonatal infection, difficulty of access to tertiary care hospitals able to treat hydrocephalus, and high complication rates in patients who are able to access and receive shunting procedures. Furthermore, conventional methods of training of neurosurgeons and nursing staff to become proficient in neuroendoscopic procedures involve a lengthy period of training, often at specialized centers in Western or local Western-style institutions.
Methods:
The novel approach promoted by volunteer neurosurgical teams from Neurosurgery Education Development Foundation is described, and its potential role in successfully providing neuroendoscopic ventriculostomy at hospitals in regional sites away from main referral tertiary hospitals is outlined. The impact on the training of local neurosurgical specialists and residents in training as well as nursing staff is highlighted.
Results:
With the use of a single portable neuroendoscopy system and a versatile free-hand, single-operator neuroendoscope, this outreach, mobile, and readily portable model has been successfully used to perform more than 250 procedures in 21 different hospital sites around seven different countries in two continents. The local courses have imparted hands-on training to 62 neurosurgeons and trainee residents and a further 110 operating room nurses at these 21 institutions.
Conclusions:
Neuroendoscopy is not only a priority surgical tool for East Africa. It offers a medical philosophy as an application that serves as an art and a science dedicated to the development of a complex surgical specialty: neurosurgery.