Needs, Roles, and Challenges of Young Latin American and Caribbean Neurosurgeons

-BACKGROUND: Barriers to neurosurgery training and practice in Latin American and Caribbean countries (LACs) have been scarcely documented. The World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Young Neurosurgeons Forum sur-vey sought to identify young neurosurgeons' needs, roles, and challenges. We present the results focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.-METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the Young Neurosurgeons Forum survey responses from LACs, following online survey dissemination through per-sonal contacts, social media, and neurosurgical societies' e-mailing lists between April and November 2018. Data analysis was performed using Jamovi version 2.0 and STATA version 16.-RESULTS: There were 91 respondents from LACs. Three (3.3%) respondents practiced in high-income countries, 77 (84.6%) in upper middle-income countries, 10 (11%) in lower middle-income countries, and 1 (1.1%) in an un-classified country. The majority (77, or 84.6%) of re-spondents were male, and 71 (90.2%) were younger than 40. Access to basic imaging modalities was high, with access to computed tomography scan universal among the survey respondents. However, only 25 (27.5%) of respondents reported having access to imaging guidance systems (navigation), and 73 (80.2%) reported having access to high-speed drills. A high GDP per capita was associated with increased availability of high-speed drills and more time dedicated to educational endeavors in neurosurgery, such as didactic teaching and topic presentation (P < 0.05). -CONCLUSIONS: This survey found that neurosurgery trainees and practitioners of Latin America and the Carib-bean face many barriers to practice. These include inad-equate state-of-the-art neurosurgical equipment, a lack of standardized training curricula, few research opportu-n ities, and long working hours.