The Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) has accepted the Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery of The American Association of Neurological Surgeons as a Joint Section with their organization. Although this acceptance is contingent on a few book-keeping changes in the bylaws, this will be a valuable asset to the activities of the Section of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
Arthur Marlin, MD, the Joint Section’s constituant on the CPT coding, began assessing the coding system with special reference to the appropriateness of these codes in the practice of Pediatric Neurosurgery. The project was originally mandated under Dr. Arthur Marlin when he was section chairman, and involves input from a large number of pediatric neurosurgeons that are committed to the care of children. A significant number of procedures performed in pediatric neurosurgery are not reflected in the CPT code book, and a larger number of different scopes of operations are done in children as opposed to those performed in adults. This is being looked at carefully in connection with the CPT codes.
The Section is also involved in the creation of monographs for the parent’s education as well as for other neurosurgeons managing pediatric neurosurgical patients. The responsibility for the production of these monographs is in the hands of committee chair Richard Coulon, MD.
These monographs are primarily intended to be resources for patients and their families, but could be helpful to practicing pediatricians. Manuscripts covering Chiari Malformation by Richard Coulon and Dandy-Walker Malformation by Andrew Parent have already been submitted to the Section’s Executive Council for their input.
The pediatric program at the CNS Annual Meeting held in San Francisco enjoyed a joint status with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The pediatric program had a greater presence at the Congress meeting than it has had in the past. There was a full morning session as well as a full afternoon devoted to the education of general surgeons and pediatricians. Timothy Mapstone, MD organized the event such that the AAP member pediatricians could be admitted easily to the pediatric neurosurgical program. There was significant intermix-ing of information from these two organizations and hopefully this will continue in the future.
The Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery held its 1995 annual meeting at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, California on December 6-9. Gordon McComb, MD was the host. The keynote speaker was Robert Pudenz, who covered the history of the development of the ventriculoatrial shunt.