Case Conferences

Cerebrovascular Conference: Held weekly on Wednesdays, in collaboration with the UCSF Center for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease. 

Cerebrovascular Case Conference: Held twice monthly on Thursdays and conducted by faculty of the UCSF Stroke Service, with collaboration between the Neurology Department and Neurological Surgery. 

Neuroscience Course: Held weekly on Thursdays and lasting 2 hours, this lecture series covers pertinent topics in clinical and basic neurosciences, as well as in biostatistics, medical ethics, and biomedical reporting and publication. The co-directors of this series are Drs. Manish Aghi and Kurtis Auguste. 

Epilepsy Case Conference: Held monthly on a Thursday, this is a multidisciplinary conference conducted by members of the Neurology and Neurosurgery departments. 

Grand Rounds: Conducted every Thursday at UCSF (excluding the last Thursday of the month), Grand Rounds consists of a lecture by UCSF faculty or guest speakers on topics in basic and clinical neuroscience. 

Instructional Case Conference: Held immediately before Grand Rounds, this conference consists of case presentations and discussion. The Instructional Case Conference is patterned after the Oral Board Examination. 

Journal Club: Held monthly on a Wednesday, this discussion of the biomedical literature is conducted by rotating members of the faculty. 

Morbidity and Mortality Conference: Held once each month on a Thursday in place of Grand Rounds. This conference includes a discussion of cases from the UCSF, SFGH, and SFVAMC hospitals. 

Movement Disorders Journal Club: Held every Wednesday afternoon at Parnassus. Participants include neurosurgical and neurology faculty of the Surgical Movement Disorders Group, fellows, residents, medical and graduate students and personnel from Dr. Philip Starr’s lab. 

Nerve Injury Conference: Held twice monthly on Thursday, in the Neurosurgery clinic. 

Neuro-Oncology/Neuropathology Conference: This conference is held every Thursday to review current cases. A Neuro-Oncology Case Conference is held monthly. 

Neuroradiology Grand Rounds: Held weekly on Thursdays. Neurosurgery residents are expected to attend neuroradiology Grand Rounds. 

Neuroradiology Spine Conference: Held on three Wednesdays per month, this conference is conducted by our spine faculty and Dr. William Dillon of the neuroradiology faculty. 

Neurosurgery/Orthopedics Spine Conference: Held every other Monday. This is a joint conference between neurological surgery and orthopedic spine faculty with fellows, residents and medical students from both disciplines. 

Neurosurgery/Neuroradiology Correlation Conference: Held weekly on Thursday, conducted by Dr. William Dillon of the Neuroradiology Department. 

Pediatric Neuroradiology/Neurosurgery Conference: Held weekly on Tuesdays, with Dr. Nalin Gupta from Neurosurgery and Dr. A. James Barkovich from Radiology.

Pituitary Endocrine Disorders Conference: Held once a month on Thursdays. Drs Lewis Blevins, Sandeep Kunwar and Manish Aghi coordinate this conference. 

Radiosurgery Conference: Held weekly on Thursdays, conducted by Dr. Penny Sneed of Radiation Oncology and Dr. Michael McDermott of the Neurological Surgery faculty. 

Spinal Radiology/Surgery Conference (Adult): Held twice each month on a Wednesday, this conference is conducted by Neurospinal and Neuroradiology faculty. 

Teaching Rounds: Neurosurgery Teaching Rounds are conducted by the teaching neurosurgeons with the resident assigned to the neurosurgeon's patients, to discuss case management and review neurological findings. Neuro-Oncology Teaching Rounds, Pain Management Service Rounds, and Interventional Neuroradiology Rounds are conducted with teaching physicians and fellows on these services to review neurosurgical cases and communicate individually with the neurosurgery residents. 

Weekend Teaching Rounds: Each weekend, the faculty member on call for the Adult Neurosurgery Service makes teaching rounds with all residents assigned to that weekend. The main emphasis is on ICU care. 

San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center: Scheduled teaching rounds are held daily by a teaching neurosurgeon. Each patient's clinical course, laboratory data, and radiologic studies are reviewed and the treatment plan for the next 24 hours is set. Pathophysiology of relevant conditions and such variables as increased intracranial pressure, uncal herniation, and spinal injury are reviewed. 

San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center: Patient rounds with an attending surgeon are performed daily as well as with the hospitalist for patients with active medical issues. The service provides for one-on-one resident surgical training in the operating room four days a week, and teaching with three attendings in the outpatient clinic one day per week. The service has third and fourth year medical students routinely participating in clinical care and teaching sessions. In addition, there is a joint neurosurgery-interventional neurovascular case conference held twice monthly, and neuroradiology conference held weekly. The resident also participates in the tumor board conference on a case-by-case basis.