The Moroccan Society of Neurology (MSN) was very pleased to organise with the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) the EAN-Day on the margins of the Maghrebian Congress of Neurology, held in the beautiful and charming city of Marrakech. Marrakech is located at the junction between the northern and southern parts of Morocco. It is well-known for its red walls, blue sky and nice weather, for the Koutoubia mosque, the great square of Jemaa el Fna and for the beauty of the high peaks of the Atlas mountain range, snow covered in winter.
The Moroccan Society of Neurology is very grateful to Eveline Sipido, Liaison Officer of the EAN and Julia Mayer, EAN’s Association Manager, for their great support and help for the organisation of this scientific event in Marrakech. They have been very reactive and kindly available at every moment and for every question we had.
The EAN Day took place in The Palmerai Golf Palace Congress Center, the day before the Maghrebian Congress. A total of 129 participants attended this exciting event, among which 15 colleagues from Algeria and 14 from Tunisia. The residents in training represented around 60% of the attendees.
We had the chance and the honor to host 3 eminent speakers from the European neurological community : Professor Franz Fazekas from Graz, President of the EAN, Professor Günther Deuschl from Kiel, Past President of the EAN and Professor Didier Leys from Lille, past Secretary General of the EAN.
Three topics were discussed during the morning’s session of the EAN Day, with 3 very interesting lectures that sparked a lot of attention. The first lecture was presented by Prof Günther Deuschl on « Recent developments of diagnosis and therapy of Parkinson’s disease ». Prof Franz Fazekas talked about « Diagnosis of MRI white matter abnormalities » and Prof Didier Leys’ talk concerned « Management of acute stroke ». Before the lunch break, Dr Houyam Tibar, the moroccan representative of the Resident and Research Fellow Section (RRFS) who is at the end of her neurology training, gave news from Neulogists in Training all over Europe, and informations on educational programs and grants of the EAN.
The afternoon was dedicated to three workshops concerning usual and unusual tremor, pitfalls in White Matter diseases and thrombolysis and thrombectomy. The speakers presented their personal cases but time was also allowed at the end of each workshop to discuss some clinical cases presented by Moroccan residents.
The meeting was a great success. The topics with their practical clinical importance were extremely appreciated by the audience who was very interested in both the lectures and the clinical cases. The participation was very active during the whole day with a great interactivity during the workshops. Many questions arised from the attendees for each of the topics, specially from the residents and the young neurologists. At the end of the day, an evaluation form was filled by the participants and then certificates of attendance and memory sticks containing the lecture’s slides were distributed.
The EAN Day was followed by the Maghrebian Congress of Neurology attended by 227 participants. The main topics were Neurology in the Elderly, Headaches and Neuroimaging. Plenary sessions, Teaching courses and Workshops were organised during the 3 days of the congress, animated by 26 regional speakers from Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia and 17 international speakers from Australia, Austria, France, Italy, Turkey, UK and USA. Many attendees participated in all these sessions with great interest. An international session was held in partnership between the Maghrebian Federation of Neurology, the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) and the Moroccan Fondation against Neurological Diseases (Fondation Marocaine contre les Maladies Neurolgiques, F2MN). During this international session, Prof William Caroll, President of the WFN, Prof Wolgang Grisold, Secretary General of the WFN, Prof Steven Lewis, elected trustee of the WFN, Prof Prof Raad Shakir, past President of the WFN, Prof Didier Leys, past Secretary General of the EAN and Prof Antonio Federico, past president of Italian Society of Neurology and italian delegate at WFN gave very interesting lectures on diverse topics.
The EAN Day and the Maghrebian Congress held in Marrakech from 12 to 15th December 2018 were great events for the Maghrebian neurological community, who had the opportunity to attend a congress of high scientific level. The MSN is very thankful to all the speakers for their availability and their contribution to the high quality of these two manifestations and to all the participants for their active involvement and interest.
