It is a great honor and pleasure to invite you to the 2017 Consensus Conference and 3rd Refreshser Course of the European Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ESPN), which will be held in Rome-Italy, at the Palazzo Rospigliosi, from February 23 to February 25, 2017.

The topic selected for the Consensus Conference is arachnoid cysts. The programme has been structured with the aim of answering three among the main debated questions on this topic. The first will be “How to distinguish between an asymptomatic and symptomatic child”, with a prominent but not exclusive role given to sylvian cysts, still the most debated location. The second question on which a consensus it will be attempted is surgical treatment; having overlapped the peak of interest in the use of endoscopic techniques, a more reliable comparison is nowadays possible between endoscopic management and more traditional treatments, such as microsurgery and shunts. The last unsolved question to which we will direct our attention is how to evaluate results with an eye on complications of the different available treatment modalities.

The Consensus Conference will be followed by the Refresher Course, which will be dedicated to hydrocephalus, undoubtedly still the most common disease we are asked to deal with as pediatric neurosurgeons. Though many educational activities are organized and Consensus attempted over the recent years, a large amount of issues are actually unsolved, from basic research to everyday practice. An updated perspective on the different forms of pediatric hydrocephalus and treatment options will be the center of the Course, which, as per tradition of ESPN educational activities, will have a distinguished part dedicated to practical management issues through case discussions sections and videos presentations.