Romania is on a par with Western countries when it comes to neurosurgery, and, although it is the most robotic branch of surgery, in Romania there are currently top clinics that benefit from equipment that use the most advanced technology, says Adrian Balasa, head of the Neurosurgery Clinic of the Targu-Mures County Emergency Clinical Hospital and chairman of the Romanian Society of Neurosurgery.
"There is nothing additional in Western countries to what we have," said Balasa on Thursday in Brasov at the opening of the 51st Congress of the Romanian Society of Neurosurgery, which was attended by over 230 participants from four continents.
According to him, Romanian neurosurgery is constantly renewed by creating new facilities in the country, such as the recently inaugurated centre in Cluj, and the Severe Burn Centre in Targu Mures, where, out of 25 operating rooms, 4 are dedicated only to neurosurgery, both equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
"The Romanian Society of Neurosurgery is involved in education, especially for young people, but also to bring to Romania the latest trends and everything that means science worldwide, so that patients in Romania can benefit from everything that is known and innovated in the world. (...) Neurosurgery is the most technologically advanced branch of surgery and, by bringing home the latest technology in Romania, we will greatly improve the quality of services for patients," said Balasa.
He admitted, however, that investments in state-of-the-art neurosurgery technology do not cover the whole of Romania, mentioning, at the same time, that it is normal for them to be directed to clinics that cover the entire range of pathologies and have the necessary human resources.
"We have made a strategy available to the ministry, and last year the first stroke treatment guide was developed [protocols established by the Romanian National Stroke Association and the Romanian Society of Neurology for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke that includes intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy], which is extremely important because it tries to standardise the way patients with ischemic attack or cerebral haemorrhagic attack are treated in Romania, so that, wherever in the country you suffer a misfortune, you will be treated the same and you will have equal survival and a life after such occurrence. Of course, it depends on the political factor, on its decisions, but we, as specialists, can only provide the guide and strategy, so that the whole country is covered. There are important steps from the academic to the political environment, we try to lobby for such things. It can be seen that there is a trend of modernisation in Romania in general and in neurosurgery in particular. Of course, however, these investments do not cover all of Romania, but they must be directed primarily to the places where patients from all over the country are operated, the pathology approached is complex. (...) You can't invest in clinics where there is no human resource," said Balasa.
The head of the Neurosurgery Department of the Brasov County Emergency Clinical Hospital, Cristian Kakucs, said in his turn that for the time being, with six doctors, some pathologies in the field are being addressed in Brasov, and if people migrate to other medical centres, it is because they do not have updated information on how developed the hospital currently is.
"We are in a continuous development, also due to the fact that the authorities have understood the importance of developing this field and especially that Brasov is a tourist city, a lot of foreign citizens come and we have many emergencies. We have developed a lot in recent years with equipment, and now we also have a permanent guard line. We try to maintain international standards and to address as wide a range of pathologies as possible. We have what can be considered basic and even above, but there is always room for improvement," said Kakucs, who mentioned that in Brasov they treat cranio-cerebral and vertebro-medullary traumatic pathology, brain tumor and hydrocephalus.
The former chairman of SRN, Stefan Florian, head of the Neurosurgery Clinic in Cluj, spoke about the importance of setting up high-performance centres from the perspective of training doctors in the field.
"We are expecting as many residents as possible - we have recently opened [in Clu] the new centre, which is a unique concept at European level, I could say, and where we will be able to train neurosurgeons in all subspecialisations, even ready-trained doctors, who want to overspecialise. But I would be glad if Brasov would also take a step forward and (...) make here a neurosurgeon training centre and I think it would take an opening of the university [Transilvania University of Brasov] to achieve that," said Ioan Stefan Florian.
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