{"id":162,"date":"2026-06-25T10:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/?p=162"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:26:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T01:26:54","slug":"ages-medtronic-travelling-fellowship-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/ages-medtronic-travelling-fellowship-report\/","title":{"rendered":"AGES Medtronic travelling fellowship report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tAGES Medtronic Travelling Fellowship Report\t<\/h1>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"Picture1\"\n\t<\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"Picture2\"\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t

The AGES Medtronic Travelling Fellowship took me to the International School of Neuropelveology (ISON) Level 2 Workshop in Zurich, Switzerland, from the 6-8TH June 2024. The workshop is run by Professor Marc Possover, Director and Founder of the ISON, whose research, academic and clinical merits in the fields of gynaecological oncology, surgical endometriosis treatment and neuropelveology are internationally renowned.<\/p>\n

WHAT IS NEUROPELVEOLOGY?<\/strong>
Neuropelveology is a relatively new discipline of medicine involved with the diagnosis and management of injuries and dysfunctions of the pelvic nerves. Conditions which may be associated with pelvic nerve dysfunctions are varied and include neuropathic pelvic pain syndromes (which can lead to genital, groin, pudendal, back, and sciatic pain), tumours of pelvic bone and nerves (teratomas, schwannomas, osteochondrosarcomas), sexual dysfunction, and spinal cord injury.<\/p>\n

PATHWAY TO ISON Level 2<\/strong>
A pre-requisite for attending the ISON Level 2 Workshop is the successful completion of the ISON Level 1 course and exam. This online course encompasses lectures on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, pelvic somatic nervous system and aetiologies of pelvic somatic nerve dysfunction, endometriosis and neuropelvic disorders, and the LION (laparoscopic implantation of neuroprostheses) procedure. The Level 2 Workshop consolidates knowledge of these subjects in a small interactive group setting, further allowing practice in diagnosis of neuropelvic conditions.<\/p>\n

ISON LEVEL 2 WORKSHOP<\/strong>
The workshop was held over three days at the Possover International Medical Center in Zurich. The first 1.5 days were dedicated to lectures, interactive discussions and diagnostic case reviews; half a day was allocated to observing live surgery performed by Prof Possover (this was a laparoscopic decompression of the sciatic nerve) and the third day was dedicated to a laparoscopic cadaver dissection workshop. Candidates included gynaecologists, gynaecological oncologists, colorectal surgeons and urologists.<\/p>\n

Different techniques of laparoscopic pelvic nerve surgery were covered, including the LION procedure, which has been successful in treating patients with spinal cord injuries. This procedure allows the electrode to be implanted near, rather than on, nerves to allow lower frequencies to be used, which in turn helps to reduce nerve pain.<\/p>\n

CADAVERIC DISSECTION WORKSHOP<\/strong>
On the final day, we travelled by train to Bern, 121km away from Zurich, for the cadaveric dissection course at Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine. We performed laparoscopic dissection of the sacral and lumbar plexuses and the sciatic and pudendal nerves. At the completion of the dissection course, we were presented with our ISON Level 2 Certificates.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>
ISON 2 is a high-level, high-quality workshop held in beautiful surrounds, attended by like-minded multidisciplinary surgeons and led by the visionary Prof Possover, whose passion for Neuropelveology is both inspiring and contagious. The knowledge gained is invaluable and the hands-on cadaveric dissection was the highlight of the workshop. I left realising that pelvic pain is not always endometriosis and became more familiar with dissecting out the pelvic nerves. I highly recommend this course to those interested in neuropelveology and desiring to challenge their current knowledge and surgical skills.<\/p>\n\t

\"\"<\/p>\nDr Cherynne Johansson
\nMBBS DCH(WA) FRACGP FRANZCOG AATP
\nLiverpool Hospital, Liverpool NSW.\n\t

\"\"<\/p>\nDr Jennifer Pontr\u00e9
\nMBBS (hons) FRANZCOG (AGES) MRepMed
\nAGES Board Member, Gynaecologist and Minimally Invasive Surgeon
\nKEMH, Perth, Western Australia\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This AGES fellowship report details Switzerland’s ISON Level 2 Workshop, providing vital insights into neuropelveology through expert lectures, live surgery, and cadaveric pelvic nerve dissection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/july-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}