Michael Brainin opened the 21st Ibero-American Congress of Stroke in Brazil

This year, the 21st Ibero-American Congress was held for the first time in southern Brazil, in Gramado from 2 to 4 August 2018. In the course of the event a declaration was adopted aiming to ensure and optimize the treatment of strokes in Central and South America.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Michael Brainin, Head of the Department for Clinical Neurosciences and Preventive Medicine at Danube University Krems, opened the 21st Ibero-American Congress on 2 August. 600 representatives from all the South- and Central American countries attended the Congress in Gramado in southern Brazil.

A ministerial meeting followed the opening. The ministers for Health or rather their representatives from different states adopted a declaration of Gramado, which Michael Brainin cosigned as president of the World Stroke Organization. Consequently stroke care in Central and South America is planned to be optimized and expanded.

Distribution of stroke units
“Stroke units are setups for treating acute stroke; they enhance the patient’s chance of survival significantly. Especially in Brazil the numbers of strokes multiplied over the last 10 years leading to the installment of stroke units among the bigger and regional centers. The availability of emergency thrombolytic and catheter interventions has also increased evidently”, says Professor Dr. Michael Brainin.

Primarily Prof. Sheila Martins, President of the Brazilian Stroke Association, attained these achievements. Throughout her tireless work the care system was broadly distributed; for which she was honored at the conference. Michael Brainin expressed his gratitude for the neurologist’s engagement and received an award himself – a badge of honor, handed over by Prof. Claudio Sacks from Santiago de Chile.

Training for specialists
“The faster and more specialized strokes are treated, the greater the success. For that reason all the more it is important to properly train physicians and to install stroke units in hospitals”, explains Michael Brainin, University professor for Neurosciences, who manages together with Prof. Wolf- Dieter Heiss the studies “European Master in Stroke Medicine” at Danube University Krems. Physicians from 22 different countries have enrolled for this international course. The following seventh course attended by numerous participants from South America commences in October.