Saudi Association of Neurological Surgery

The first attempt to establish a national scientific association of neurological surgery in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia goes back to the mid-eighties of the last century. As the number of Saudi neurosurgeon at that time did not exceed the number of one hand’s fingers, all efforts were focused on creating jointly with the, by then, also very few Saudi neurologists a single society for all neuroscientists with various backgrounds.

These efforts remained fruitless for more than two decades because of two reasons: First, the absence of a clear regulation in the Kingdom that governs the establishment of scientific societies and defines the authorised licensing body. Second, the small number of Saudi doctors working in the fields of neurosciences. However, in the year 1421 H (2000) a crucial transformation took place that had a significant impact on all scientific societies in Saudi Arabia.

In that year, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz approved “The Rules Governing the Formation of Scientific Societies in Saudi Universities”. These rules provided for the first time a clear system for the establishment of scientific societies in the Kingdom. With the birth of these rules together with the increasing number of Saudi neurosurgeons to some thirty surgeons in the various regions of the Kingdom, the prevailing belief was that Saudi neurosurgeons need an independent scientific association of their own similar to their colleagues in the rest of the world.

Following the new rules, such an association must be linked to one of the Saudi universities. It was natural that the first choice was in favor of King Saud University in Riyadh because the majority of the Saudi neurosurgeons were in that region. Consequently, a founding committee was formed in 1421H (2001) and given the task of preparing the bylaws of the association and acquiring the approval of the responsible authority in King Saud University to establish a Saudi Association of Neurological Surgery. This approval was granted in 1427H (2007).