Robert D. Martin - Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Neurological Care and Protection

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It has been a long, winding, and mysterious way to get here.

The former, current, and future leaders have met at the 14th International Conference on Neurovascular Events after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage or Vasospasm 2017 at the beautiful Pacific Ocean Huntington Beach invited here by Prof. John Zhang to his neck of the woods (Loma Linda University Health) to discuss Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Neurological Care and Protection.

It has been a long time since the first meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1972 and even longer from not always civilized public arguments among neurology and neurosurgery giants about the existence and the role of delayed vasospasm on the outcome of an aneurismal rupture. Fortunately, those altercations were peacefully settled by Bryce Weirs (this meeting Honorary Guest) seminal paper published in 1978, which through linking the presence of delayed vasospasm with poor outcome had opened the door to the intensive all-over-the-world research and led to organizing the international meetings, which since then have been taking place on three continents at the different time intervals and which have been devoted to the still-evolving ideas on pathomechanism, prevention, and treatment of vasospasm after aneurismal SAH.

A little bit nostalgic, at the 14th International Conference on Neurovascular Events after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage or Vasospasm 2017 at the Huntington Beach Resort, CA, 176 registrants from 14 countries (with an encouraging and importantly an increasing number of women participants (29; 17%)) gathered to present and discuss their past, current, and future research and share the experiences and anecdotes about the late and current leaders in the field and their thoughts and opinions about past mistakes and successes while dealing with an aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage and its effects on patients.

This book consists of 31 excellent papers selected from 167 oral and poster presentations exploring known knowns, known unknowns, as well as some unknown unknowns in many fields integrated into preclinical and clinical research of events leading to and evoked by an aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Put together, they provide in-depth inside view of the current state of our knowledge and understanding of events before and after intracranial subarachnoid hemorrhage and indicate the new directions in our long pursuit of prevention and treatment of a devastating, despite being treatable, intracranial aneurism rupture. We strongly believe that those proceedings not only will help the young basic and clinical researchers to accrue good foundations for understanding pathomechanism(s) of subarachnoid hemorrhage and vasospasm(s?) to proceed and/or develop their own ideas and projects but also will facilitate opening of multipronged venues for further research.

We thank Dr. John Lenart, Ms. Shirley Jones, Ms. Sheila Risley, and Ms. Kathrine McAllister from the Department of Anesthesiology and Ms. Olivia Portugal and Ms. Xiomara Pineda from the Department of Neurosurgery for putting in an immense amount of time to set up all aspects of the meeting. The foundation they laid made this symposium possible. The last but not by any means the least, our gratitude is extended to all members of the Organizing Committee; Dr. Robert D. Martin, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Dr. Warren Boling, Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery of Loma Linda University Health; medical companies; and above all the participants !

Thank you and see you at the 15th Symposium at the Netherlands in 2019!

From the Organizing Committee