Goal/Objective: To provide training and experience and develop competence in diagnosis of neuropathology autopsy and surgical material from both the Brigham and Women's and the Children's Hospital services. Dr. Umberto De Girolami is Chief of Neuropathology at both the Brigham and Women's and Children's Hospitals.

The rotation consists of a brief introductory training period, during which time the resident will be shown preferred techniques of specimen handling and reporting. Some of this will constitute a review, since all residents, as part of routine evening and weekend coverage, have already participated in intraoperative diagnosis of neurosurgical specimens, and, as part of routine autopsy rotations, have participated in brain-cutting sessions.

For surgical neuropathology, the rotating resident will be responsible at the Brigham and Women's Hospital for daytime frozen section preparation, gross dictation, organization of paperwork, and, with help from the neuropathology fellow, initial slide review and special study requests. He/she will be expected to learn techniques of handling stereotactic and open brain tumor specimens, seizure resections, ophthalmic material, and nerve and muscle biopsies, including electron microscopy, with supervision by neuropathology fellow or staff. He/she will attend daily afternoon surgical sign-out and participate in write-up of surgical reports.

The rotator will assist the neuropathology fellow in setting up and running the Brigham and Women's Hospital Tuesday brain cutting sessions (adult and perinatal). He/she will also review the medical records and, in consultation with the neuropathology fellow or staff, be responsible for prosection of autopsy brain, spinal cord, muscle, nerve, and eye specimens. Rotators may help review autopsy slides and generate autopsy reports, as deemed appropriate by neuropathology fellow or staff.

Conference responsibility during the rotation includes preparation and presentation of one didactic conference (Children's weekly Neurology Meeting), the topic of which may be the choice of the rotator, with approval of neuropathology fellow or staff. Rotators also participate in the twice-monthly Neuropathology "unknown" teaching, case conference run by Dr. De Girolami. Residents are otherwise expected to attend the regularly-scheduled departmental conferences, and may wish to attend relevant clinical and research conferences (Neurology and Neurosurgery Grand Rounds, Enders Neuroscience Seminars, etc.).

Teaching material available to the rotator includes a computer-indexed file of rare and classic examples of adult and perinatal neuropathology, collected since 1977; glass slide study sets of smear preparations and permanent sections, collected since 1988 from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital; glass slide study sets of normal neuroanat-omy, koda-chrome slides of gross neuropathology from files, and from collections of senior staff; complete and up-to-date library of texts and monographs on Neuropathology, Neuro-anatomy, and clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.