The World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology is chartered as an international scientific non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the interventional and therapeutic neuroradiology discipline focussed on endovascular neurosurgery throughout the world.

The 13th congress of the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology will be in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 10th-14th, 2013.

President´s Greetings

Dear WFITN members,
Dear friends and colleagues,

The last congress of the WFITN held in Cape Town, South Africa, was a great success. The quality of the scientific presentations was excellent, the venue wonderful and the organization brilliant. Hereby, I would like to give my warmest thanks to the Congress President and the main organizers Allan Taylor and David LeFeuvre for their excellent work. Now we are looking forward to the next congress in two years in Buenos Aires, which will be of the same attractiveness.

The WFITN was founded in Val d`Isere in 1991, and since then the society has been growing and developing. Now, there are more than 800 members from everywhere in the world, and nearly 70 to 100 new members apply per year. This may show the attraction of our society. Additionally, it also proves the increasing importance of our neurointerventional specialty, which has developed from a small sub-specialty to a recognized and established full specialty. Interventional Neuroradiology has become a fascinating specialty (field, subject) with an increasing impact on the treatment of neurovascular diseases like AVMs, AV fistulas aneurysms, intracranial stenoses and more and more on the management of acute stroke. Not only endovascular therapies are represented, but also is the development of interventional spinal therapy supported.

The WFITN is now one of the biggest if not the biggest society of neurointerventional therapy worldwide.

The society represents all fields of neurointervention and supports the evolution of new therapies as well as it promotes the international exchange (especially for young fellows), communication, and furthers research and training.

During my period as the President of the WFITN, I will try to improve the support of young fellows and trainees to give them the chance to visit other departments in other countries and to join the congress and the workshops of the WFITN, especially the ABC-WIN.

Research and training should be supported by grants for selected research projects, and the relationship to the industry as an important partner in the development and evolution of new therapies will be managed actively.
As a global, worldwide society, we will intensify the contact to other continental and national societies and organizations to support the international communication process creating an Interventional Neuroradiology Global Network.

It is a great honor for me to be the President of the WFITN for the next two years. However, I understand it primarily as a task and not as a representative position. As an executive officer, I have to work for the WFITN, and I am happy to do it with an excellent team, the new executive board with:
Georges Rodesch, Serge Bracard, Michael Soderman, Toshio Hyogo, Sirintara Pongpech, Alexandra Biondi and Shigeru Miyachi.
At this point, I would like to thank my antecedent, the former President Toshio Hyogo, for his work during the last years.

Prof. Juergen Reul
President of the WFITN