Mehmet Zileli1, Salman Sharif2, Maurizio Fornari3, Premenand Ramani4, Fengzeng Jian5, Richard Fessler6, Se-Hoon Kim7, Toshihiro Takami8, Nobuyuki Shimokawa9, Gilbert Dechambenoit10, Mahmood Qureshi11, Nikolay Konovalov12, Marcos Masini13, Enrique Osorio-Fonseca14, José António Soriano Sanchez15, Abdul Hafid Bajamal16, Jutty Parthiban17, Ibet Marie Sih18, Óscar Luis Alves19, Joachim Oertel20, Lukas Rasulic21, Francesco Costa3, Wilco C Peul22, Krishna Sharma23, Mohamed Mohi Eldin24, Nasiru Jinjiri Ismail25, Ignatius Ngene Esene26, Mohammad Hossain27, Svetoslav Kalevski28, Oliver N Hausmann29, Onur Yaman30, Shahswar Arif31, Zarina Brady31. 1. Department of Neurosurgery, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, Izmir, Turkey. 2. Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan. 3. Department of Neurosurgery, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy. 4. Department of Neurosurgery, L.T.M. Medical College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India. 5. Department of Neurosurgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. 6. Department of Neurosurgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, United States. 7. Department of Neurosurgery, Ansan Hospital, Korea University Medical Center, Ansan, Korea. 8. Department of Neurosurgery, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Japan. 9. Department of Neurosurgery, Tsukazaki Hospital, Hyogo, Japan. 10. Neurochirurgie CMCO Côte d'Opale St Martin, Boulogne, France. 11. President Continental Association of African Neurosurgical Socieites (CAANS), Nairobi, Kenya. 12. Department of Neurosurgery, Burdenko Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation. 13. Department of Neurosurgery, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil. 14. Department of Neurosurgery, El Bosque University, Bogota, Colombia. 15. Department of Neurosurgery, ABC Medical Center, Mexico, Mexico. 16. Department of Neurosurgery, Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia. 17. Department of Neurosurgery, Kovai Medical Center, Tamilnadu, India. 18. University of the Philippines, St. Luke's Medical Center, Bonifacio Global City, Philippines. 19. Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Lusíadas, Porto, Portugal. 20. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Saarland, Homburg, Saar, Germany. 21. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Belgrade, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia, Slovenia. 22. Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands. 23. Department of Neurosurgery, Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Nepal. 24. Department of Neurosurgery, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. 25. Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria. 26. Neurosurgery Division, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bamenda, Bambili, Cameroon. 27. Department of Neurosurgery, Bangabandhu Shiek Mujib Medical University, Dhka, Bangladesh. 28. Multi-profile Hospital "St Anna-Varna", Medical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria. 29. Department of Neurosurgery, Hirslanden Klinik St. Anna Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland. 30. Memorial Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. 31. Medical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria.
To the editorWe thank Dr. Khattab and Bourghli for the letter in response to our paper “History of Spinal Neurosurgery and Spine Societies” [1]. In fact, this letter reflects the ongoing competition between the neuro and ortho-spine surgeons.We have already mentioned the Egyptian Spine Association which is a combined effort of ortho and neurosurgery. We apologize for not mentioning the “Egyptian Spine Study Group” https://egyssg.hpgportal.com/ and “Egyptian Scoliosis Society.” The latter does not have a web page, but a face-book site only https://www.facebook.com/Egyspine/The sentence “In Egypt, spine practice is done mostly by neurosurgeons.” is the observation of our coauthor Dr. Mohamed Mohi Eldin. Unfortunately, it is not supported by any statistical data or official numbers. On the other hand, the percentage of the practices mentioned by the authors from a survey cannot be taken as authentic data.Besides, our paper has focused more on the history of spinal neurosurgery. We know that there are eminent international orthopedic spine surgeons in Egypt, who has added and still adding much to the practice and education of spine surgery. No one can ignore them or their great role and well-established existence.We appreciate the interest of Dr. Khattab and Bourghli to our paper.With best greetings