On behalf of the Swiss Society of Neuroradiology (SSNR), its central committee, and our membership, we are sad announce the death of one of its prominent members, Professor Antonios Valavanis, after a long period of illness that he would fight bravely. He would remain active until the end. Indeed, Professor Antonios Valavanis was one of the original founding members, Past President, and honorary member. Besides being instrumental in the foundation of the Society in 1988, he was President of our Society for 2 periods for a total of 15 years, from 1993 to 1999 and from 2001 to 2010. Together with Dr Huber from Bern, he was the leader of one of the two Historic branches of Swiss neuroradiology, the Zurich branch.
Born on January 20, 1952, in Athens, Greece, he would study medicine in Zurich from 1970 to 1977 and graduate from the University of Zurich (UZH) medical school in 1977. He would then start his training in radiology and neuroradiology at the University Hospital of Zurich (USZ), where he became the first assistant professor in 1984 and then full professor in 1994. In 1994, he was also appointed chairman of the Clinic of Neuroradiology at USZ. This was an important event; thereafter, neuroradiologic divisions would develop across Switzerland, both in university hospitals and regional centers. He would remain chairman of the Institute for Neuroradiology at the USZ until his retirement in 2017. He became a neuroradiologist at a time of dramatic methodologic changes in both diagnostic and interventional radiology as a whole but especially in neuroradiology, when more invasive methods such as pneumoencephalography were being replaced by CT and MR imaging and catheter techniques were beginning to allow selective angiography and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases.
Under his leadership, neuroradiology in Switzerland became a full specialty with 2 branches, diagnostic and interventional; currently in Switzerland, there are now 2 consecutive subdivisions in neuroradiology: diagnostic and interventional (or “invasive” as he would call it to encompass advanced imaging). While he would make his main academic and clinical impact in interventional neuroradiology, he still considered diagnostic neuroradiology a central part of both the subspeciality and the practical clinical work-up of patients with diseases of the CNS. His scientific output has been extensive, and he has published 200 articles covering the whole field of neuroradiology. Initially in his career, he published extensively with his colleagues W. Wichmann, J. Hayek, and O. Schubiger on diagnostic approaches to patients with diseases of the brain, leading him to publish the book Clinical Imaging of the Cerebello-Pontine Angle with O. Schubiger and T.P. Naidich, who would remain close colleagues. His main focus would remain the study of complex cerebrovascular diseases such as arteriovenous malformations; he made an immense contribution to the understanding of these entities. He later published the book Interventional Neuroradiology on this topic.
Following the impetus created among other clinical leaders in Zurich such as Hugo Krayenbuhl and Hess Walter Rudolf and along with world-renowned specialists such as Professors G. Yasargil and U. Fisch, he established Zurich as one of the world’s leading centers for interventional neuroradiology. In the early 1980s, he was among the first in the world to introduce the use of modern interventional techniques for lesions of the CNS. This introduction helped to establish neuroradiology as a fully clinical-based specialty in Switzerland.
Due to his many achievements, he was the recipient of many national and international honors. In 1983, he won the Science Prize of the European Society of Neuroradiology and was President of the 17th Congress of the European Society of Neuroradiology in Zurich in 1991. He also established the long-running Zurich Course on Interventional Neuroradiology attended by neuroradiologists from all over the world, which comprised a world-wide faculty. In 2018, he was appointed an honorary member of the SSNR. He served on the editorial board of the journal Neuroradiology from 1988 to 2004 and served on multiple committees. He went on to found the Clinical Neurocenter in Zurich and was instrumental in founding the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neurosciences, over which he would preside. He also founded its journal, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience.
The SSNR established the Antonios Valavanis Medal in his honor, with the first 2 recipients being Professors Luc Picard and Georges Rodesch (both from France), both highly ranked neuroradiologists who participated in the European movement of clinically-oriented neuroradiology. The newly opened diagnostic and interventional angiography suite at the USZ was also named in his honor in October 2021. In 1992, he was appointed international consultant to the editor by the American Journal of Neuroradiology, and he was the editor-in-chief of Neuroradiologia Helvetica, the journal of the SSNR.
He has been a leader and a pioneer in making neuroradiology a central part of clinical neurosciences. His legacy in Switzerland has been immense, and he will be missed by all his direct and indirect pupils. We, therefore, wholeheartedly extend our condolences to his friends and family.
- © 2023 by American Journal of Neuroradiology
