The Stroke Summer School is organized each year by a team of stroke physicians in a European city, and is supported and endorsed by ESO. During one week, stroke specialists from Europe provide expert knowledge to young physicians with a major interest in cerebrovascular diseases. The 13^th ESO Stroke Summer School was held at the Faculté de Médecine Henri Warenbourg in Lille, France. An intensive course program spanning over a week was aimed to highlight the recent advances and new recommendations on various aspects of stroke. The intended audience, 42 neurophysicians in their early career with an interest in stroke were selected from all over the world. The 42 selected attendees (22 women and 20 men, median age 31 years) were from 25 countries : 29 from the EU (Italy 5; Belgium 4; Germany 3; Poland 3; United Kingdom 3; France 2; Romania 2; Spain 2; Austria 1; Netherlands 1; Portugal 1; Slovakia 1; Sweden 1); 7 from European countries not members if the EU (Switzerland 2; Albania 1; Armenia 1; Georgia 1; Moldavia 1; Russia 1) and 6 from non-European countries (Brazil 1; Canada 1; India 1; Indonesia 1; Tunisia 1; Egypt 1).The course program featured lectures from stroke experts from Europe. The course coordinators for the 13^th summer school were Prof. Didier Leys and Dr Charlotte Cordonnier. The course program was structured into lectures / seminars, workshops and case presentations. Unlike conference programs, the lectures were intended to be interactive to make it a cogent and interesting experience for the attendees.

The major topics of the program were: Biology and basic pharmacology of stroke, Brain imaging, Vascular malformations of the CNS, Acute Ischemic stroke management, Rare causes of cerebral ischemia, Intracerebral haemorrhage, Post stroke conditions, Vascular risk factors and Stroke and cognition. Besides these topics, the terminal lecture everyday was a special lecture by an authority on a specific field. These included lectures by Jose Ferro (Cerebral vasculitis),Werner Hacke (Neurointensive Care), Rustam Al Shahi Salman (Evidence based stroke medicine), Philip Schlectens (Slient brain lesions in dementia).These special lectures were the most informative and updated and particularly the lecture on Evidence based medicine was highly relevant to current clinical practice. The case presentations by the faculty were stimulating, evoking lively discussion on diagnostic and therapeutic aspects. The practical aspects of stroke were pertinently covered by the workshops which included: Stroke Unit, Emergency, Rehabilitation, Examination of the stroke patient, Animal labs and Gamma Knife.

Overall, the stroke summer school concept is highly instructive and motivating for the initiated, providing insights into the rapidly evolving and advancing field of stroke, triggering new ideas for research and improvements in the stroke care.

In 2010, the stroke summer school will be organized in Warsaw, Poland.