As part of his charity project “Help-in-Hand”, Dr Horaczek recently travelled for several days to Accra, Ghana, and Lomé, Togo, where he met with leading neurosurgeons from both West African countries to initiate a collaboration with Inter Neuro.

As a first step, young Ghanaian and Togolese neurosurgeons, as well as pain specialists, will participate in one of the upcoming Help-in-Hand courses for doctors from developing countries, which will once again be held at Inter Neuro in Berlin. The local organisation and selection of participants will be overseen by Dr Akoto from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and Dr Doleagbenou from Lomé.

Furthermore, Dr Horaczek gladly agreed to return to Ghana and Togo in the near future to carry out neurosurgical operations together with local colleagues and to organise a course in endoscopic cranial and spinal neurosurgery.

Dr Horaczek was once again invited to Cairo and Alexandria to support and teach neurosurgical specialists in hospitals run by the Egyptian Ministry of Health. Together, they reviewed complex cases and performed surgeries under his supervision.

This is the latest example of Inter Neuro’s mission not only to provide world-class neurosurgical treatment, but also to empower colleagues in resource-limited environments to deliver top-level, up-to-date neurosurgical care.

Video report on Dr Horaczek’s work at the hospital: youtu.be/4Lo7o5fuyqc

Dr Horaczek has been invited to Egypt again where he is teaching on a regular basis. This time, he visited hospitals in New Cairo and Alexandria where he performed several complicated operations including the successful complete removal of a large skull base tumour. The Egyptian colleagues were invited by him to come to Berlin and attend one of the next spinal pain treatment courses at Inter-Neuro.

Dr Horaczek has been invited again to work as Honorary Lecturer at Kenyatta University Nairobi, Kenya. With 56 permanent neurosurgical resident trainees, Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi is one of the largest neurosurgical training facilities in Africa.

During the last couple of weeks, Dr Horaczek lead the training of the neurosurgical trainees in the field of brain endoscopy, brain tumour surgery, pain therapy for spinal pain syndromes and spinal cord stimulation.

Dr Horaczek: ‟Rarely have I experienced such a well organised and practice focussed neurosurgical training programme with highly motivated and team oriented young neurosurgeons and experienced and dedicated teachers in a challenging environment. I can‘t wait to come back.”

Dr. Horaczek was in Cairo to share his expertise in brain and spinal surgery.

Dr. Horaczek was invited to give the opening lecture at the annual congress of the Philippine Society of Neurosurgery. In his talk, he discussed modern approaches to neurosurgical pain management and introduced the Inter Neuro initiative. He also presented a hands-on, free training program for physicians from developing countries, which is set to launch next year. This program will offer participants the opportunity to learn neurosurgical pain management techniques and apply them in their home institutions. Exciting developments lie ahead.

In October, Dr Horaczek travelled again to Cairo, Egypt to operate on several patients with complex neurosurgical problems and to teach young Egyptian neurosurgeons.

Peripheral nerve stimulation can be used to treat chronic pain in areas such as the knee, groin, foot, shoulder, upper body, head and face. Spinal ganglion stimulation can also be used to treat pain in the legs or arms. It suppresses the pathological chronic transmission of pain signals.

Many patients have suffered from chronic pain for many years and have had to undergo several operations and take pain medication over the long term. For these patients, such stimulation can bring about a significant and lasting improvement in their quality of life.

Both procedures can be performed using minimally invasive techniques and are completely reversible, meaning that patients face only minimal risk during treatment. Many patients are not yet familiar with this form of therapy, and there is a problem of underprovision of appropriate procedures for chronic pain patients.