Four Nepali neurosurgeons mark World Brain Tumour Day, renew call for public awareness on brain health

KATHMANDU: Four Nepali neurosurgeons who established the Neurocare Foundation Nepal in 2024 to tackle a widespread lack of neurological awareness and preventive care across the country marked their initiative on World Brain Tumour Day on Monday.

The founders, Dr Prasanna Karki, Dr Binod Rajbhandari, Dr Rupendra B Adhikari and Dr Anish Man Singh, said the idea grew from experiences during their early medical training in Kathmandu, where they frequently encountered patients who arrived too late for effective treatment. They cited cases of stroke victims waiting days as families relied on traditional rituals and prayers, and patients with spinal problems who had been treated for symptoms rather than the underlying cause.

"People were not suffering only from disease. They were suffering from silence, from not knowing what their body was trying to tell them," the surgeons said, recalling encounters that highlighted gaps in public health education.

The four began their collaborative work as medical officers at Annapurna Neuro Hospital in Maitighar before pursuing specialised training overseas. Dr Karki and Dr Adhikari spent five years completing neurosurgery residencies and doctoral degrees in Japan. Dr Rajbhandari completed six years of combined general and neurosurgical training in Nepal, and Dr Man Singh undertook three years of specialised neurosurgery training in China.

After returning to practise in Nepal, the team realised that surgery alone could not address the root causes of late-stage admissions. "Treating one patient at a time felt like placing a bandage over a wound that kept reopening. We wanted to stop the wound from happening at all," they said.

Meanwhile, to tackle the problem, Neurocare Foundation Nepal organises free health camps in remote communities where specialist neurological services are scarce or financially out of reach. The foundation also runs public campaigns to raise awareness of critical symptoms, particularly those of stroke, and urges immediate hospital care rather than delay.

On World Brain Tumour Day, the four neurosurgeons renewed their call for broader public awareness of brain health and timely medical intervention. Looking ahead to the expansion of their community health programmes, they added, "We have many more dreams to fulfil."