Agenda

The 3rd Joint SIH Congress will take place on 29–31 May 2026.

Venue

The event will be hosted at the Kursaal Bern
Kornhausstrasse 3
3013 Bern, Switzerland

Friday 29th of May 2026

Principles & Introduction to SIH

08:30

Welcome

 

09:00 – 09:30

Introduction to SIH, etiologies, brain MRI

Petutschnigg Tomas - Switzerland, Zander Charlotte - Germany

09:30 – 10:00

Standardized diagnostic spine work-up

Lützen Niklas - Germany, Piechowiak Eike - Switzerland, Dobrocky Tomas - Switzerland

10:00 – 10:30

Q & A

 

10:30 – 11:00

coffee break

 

11:00 – 11:30

Unravelling the CSF venous fistula mystery

Carlton-Jones Lalani - UK

11:30 – 12:00

Endovascular treatment of SIH

Cagnazzo Federico - France

12:00 – 12:15

Q & A

 

12:15 – 13:15

lunch break

 

13:15 – 13:45

Principles of SIH treatment – percutaneous / blood patch

Piechowiak Eike - Switzerland, Amrhein Timothy - USA

13:45 – 14:15

Principles of SIH treatment – the surgery perspective

Goldberg Johannes - Switzerland, Häni Levin - Switzerland, Volz Florian - Germany

14:15 – 14:30

Q & A

 

14:30 – 15:00

coffee break

 

15:00 – 15:30

Group 1: Case – discussion and Group 2: Setup during myelo

 

15:30 – 16:00

Group 1: Setup during myelo and Group 2: Case – discussion

 

Saturday 30th of May 2026

Scientific Sessions

08:30

Welcome & registration

 

09:00 – 09:20

The 100 faces of SIH

Scoffings Daniel - UK

09:20 – 09:40

Spine MRI, finding the leak (flow void, bud on branch, SLEC distribution and leak localization)

Lützen Niklas - Germany

09:40 – 09:55

Spine MRI advanced – Phase Contrast MRI

Wolf Katharina - Germany

09:55 – 10:10

Imaging Biomarker in SIH (spinal volumetry, elastrography)

Piechowiak Eike - Switzerland

10:10 – 10:40

Q & A

 

10:40 – 11:00

coffee break

 

11:00 – 11:30

The ideal setup for CSFVF detection (battle debate) (straw, inspiration, Photon counting, just the filling matters, It’s all about the pressure, DSM?)

Kranz Peter - USA vs. Carlton-Jones Lalani - UK

11:30 – 11:50

The (un)reliable brain MRI score

Dobrocky Tomas - Swizerland

11:50 – 12:10

SIH Probability – brain imaging (Scores, optic nerve, spinal cysts)

Tay Angelique - USA

12:10 – 12:30

Q & A

 

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch break

 

13:30 – 13:50

sacral CSF leaks – hard to find, easy to treat?

Lützen Niklas - Germany

13:50 – 14:10

pediatric SIH

Madhavan Ajay - USA

14:10 – 14:30

Venous disease and SIH (inferior vein of cava, azygos vein stenosis, nutcracker)

Mikkelsen Ronni - Denmark

14:30 – 14:50

TBD (Abstracts a 10 min?)

 

14:50 – 15:15

coffee break

 

15:15 – 15:30

Evidence for surgical and percutaneous procedures in SLEC+ (how good are we?)

Petutschnigg Tomas - Switzerland

15:30 – 15:50

Surgery (classic + endosopic) for SLEC+

Schievink Wouter - USA

15:50 – 16:10

Patching for SLEC+

Amrhein Timothy - USA

16:10 – 16:40

Treatment of CSF venous fistula (battle debate)

Carlton-Jones Lalani - UK, Cagnazzo Federico - France, Schievink Wouter - USA, Beck Jürgen - Germany

16:40 – 17:00

PDPH Session, how aggressive should we be (battle debate)

Beck Jürgen - Germany, Volz Florian - Germany, Schyns-van den Berg Alexandra - Netherlands

17:00 – 17:30

Q & A

 
 

Dinner Rosengarten 19:00

 

Sunday 31th of May 2026

CSF the intriguing fluid

09:00 – 09:20

CSF dynamics (Production, resorption, infusion testing, RCSF)

Czosnyka Sophie - UK

09:20 – 09:40

Glymphatics in SIH

Proulx Steven - Switzerland

09:40 – 10:00

Glymphatic – let me show you the invisible

 

10:00 – 10:20

CSFomics – new Biomarkers of SIH

El-Rahal Amir - Germany

10:20 – 10:50

Q & A

 

10:50 – 11:15

coffee break

 

11:15 – 11:30

Outcome parameters, what is success (for the patient or for the physician)

 

11:30 – 12:00

Medical therapy after successful leak closure, cervicogenic etiology of orthostatic headache

Gray Linda - USA

12:00 – 12:15

Role of beta-Trace protein as a marker

Mark Ian - USA

12:15 – 12:30

Time matters, Economic impact of SIH

Häni Levin - Switzerland

12:30 – 13:30

lunch break

 

13:30 –13:50

Underlying IIH in CSF venous fistula patients – do we have sufficient proof?

Malinzak Mike - USA

13:50 –14:10

Chronic Subdural hematoma, look for CSFVF, don’t do MMA embo!

Volz Florian, / Lützen Niklas - Germany

14:10–14:30

How to setup-up a SIH service (the Porto experience)

Miguel Lopes Miranda Andre - Portugal

14:30–15:00

Q & A

 
 

Closing remarks