Dr. Francesco Sala is Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Verona, in Italy, where he graduated in 1992. His main fields of interest are Pediatric Neurosurgery and Intraoperative Neurophysiology.
In 1994-1995 he worked as Research Fellow on a spinal cord injury model at the New York University Neurosurgery Labs directed by Dr. Wise Young. In 1998-1999 Dr. Sala returned to New York for a Clinical Fellowship in Intraoperative Neurophysiology with Dr. Vedran Deletis at the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Upon his return to Italy, he established the Intraoperative Neurophysiology Unit at the Department of Neurosurgery in Verona where, in the past twelve years, more than1400 elective neurosurgical procedures have been performed under neurophysiological guidance, with a focus on brain tumors in eloquent areas, brainstem and intramedullary spinal cord tumors, as well as spinal dysraphisms in children and adults.
In 2005 Dr. Sala was one of the co-founders of the International Society for Intraoperative Neurophysiology, where he has served as Secretary (2009-2011), Chairman of the Education Committee (2011-2013), and President (2013-2015). In August 2009 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, starting a program to introduce Intraoperative Neurophysiology at the UCT Department of Neurosurgery.
Dr. Sala’s interest towards Pediatric Neurosurgery brought him back to North America in 2003 for a one-year Clinical Fellowship at the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, directed by Dr. James Drake. In September 2009, Dr. Sala was appointed as Responsible for the Pediatric Neurosurgery Unit at the Institute of Neurosurgery in Verona.
He has served as member of the Scientific Committee and Chair of the Liaison Committee for the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (2007-211), and Chair of the Website and Communication Committee for the European Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (2008-2012). Since 2015 Dr. Sala is the Italian delegate for the Training Committee of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS).
Dr. Sala lives in Valpolicella, near Verona, with his wife Elena, a cell biologist, and their three children.