Chair Students - Amal Abou-Hamden

Amal Abou-Hamden MB.BS, B.Med.Sc.(Hons) FRACS part I

Current Position:
Neurosurgery Registrar, Royal Adelaide Hospital

Clinical Tutor, Department of Surgery, University of Adelaide

PhD scholar, Department of Surgery (Neurosurgery), University of Adelaide

Achievements:
- Winner of the Tyco Health Care Award for best scientific presentation at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons- S.A & N.T. Annual Scientific Meeting 2003

- The Surgeon-Scientist Scholarship by Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 2003

- The De Puy and Spine Society Fellowship 2002

- The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Medical Postgraduate Scholarship 2001-2003

Research in the Neurosurgery Department: 2001 - 2003

- Syringomyelia is a condition, which complicates more than a quarter of all cases of spinal cord injuries.

- Developed model of post-traumatic syringomyelia in sheep

- Utilising this to study effects of scarring (spinal arachnoiditis) which occurs following spinal cord injury, on spinal fluid pressures, compliance and pathways of fluid flow through the spinal cord.

- As current treatments for syringomyelia remain unsatisfactory in the long-term, the understanding of these changes in spinal fluid dynamics, which occur following spinal cord trauma, is an important step towards developing more effective and safer treatments for this disabling condition.

Neurosurgery is a career that allows me to combine my passion for teaching, research and surgical and clinical skills in this most stupendous field of medicine.