We have the great pleasure to announce that the DEF Seminar (Disease Education Forum) will return for its fifth edition this year again.

The next session will indeed be held 16-17 September 2024, as usual in Hôpital FOCH, in Suresnes, very close to Paris. After the successes of the last seminars dedicated respectively to “Spinal Cord Vascular Malformations” “Cerebral Veins”, “Vessel Wall- Angiogenesis and related pathologies” and “Intracranial venous sinuses” that always gathered more than 100 participants coming from all over the world, we will deal this time with “The bony skull: vault, base, craniofacial area and related pathologies”

The format of the seminar, appreciated and praised by both lecturers and participants, will remain the same: we will focus during two full consecutive days on one single topic that will be analyzed in detail, from basic neurosciences to descriptions of diseases and therapeutic applications Thanks to its unusual nature, this meeting has since its start been considered as original and of high interest because it indeed concentrates exclusively on such a single subject. This allows exchanges of ideas, eye opening discussions, and will thus increase and enrich of our knowledge about a component of the head and neck region often erroneously considered as “dry” and therefore of poor interest. However, the program that we have built will show us among other issues addressed that we make a strong mistake if we stick to that legend. Did we know that the diploe is a structure of high importance for brain immunity, that the skull morphology is influenced by microbiotes, or that bony malformations create variations in the vasculature…? The skull and craniofacial area can also be the seed for various pathologies that will be detailed from anatomical, physiological, clinical and therapeutic aspects. All this new knowledge will allow us to better understand the diseases of the skull and craniofacial region we will have to face, and to better treat our patients.

Many international speakers coming from different neuroscientific horizons will join us for this fifth DEF and will share their knowledge to the audience during these two intensive working sessions : be thus prepared to
participate in intense debates and fruitful discussions. You know already some of them and appreciated the quality of their presentations. They all accepted enthusiastically to come back to Foch for this new thrilling adventure. We wish also a warm welcome to the new members of the faculty, all specialists in their
respective fields, and we thank them for having agreed to participate to this new seminar.

We will be pleased to seeing all of you for these two working days in September 2024, organized in the Department of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Neuroradiology of Hôpital FOCH, labelled by the French Ministry of Health as “Reference Center for Rare Diseases” including Central Nervous System and craniofacial vascular malformations in adults and children, in collaboration with the departments of Neuroradiology of Nancy and Karolinska University Hospital.

We hope that you will appreciate the program we have built, and we are looking forward to greet you for a productive and stimulating DEF, and also to enjoy the vibrant post Olympic end of summer in Paris.

With all our best regards and welcome !