Latin American Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (FLANC): past, present, and future.

A n a a INTRODUCTION TheAmerican continent is divided into three distinctive geographic areas: North, Central, and South. Contrary to popular belief,NorthAmerica includes three countries—Canada, he United States of America, and Mexico. Latin America (Spanish: America Latina or Latinoamerica; Portuuese: America Latina; French: Amerique Latine) is a region of the mericas where Romance languages—particularly Spanish and ortuguese, and variably French—are primarily spoken. Latin merica begins in Mexico and ends in the South Pole. It has an area f approximately 21,069,500km (7,880,000 sqmiles), almost 3.9% of the Earth’s surface or 14.1%of its land surface area. As of 2010, its population was estimated at more than 590 million (Figure 1 and able 1). The development of neurosurgery in Latin America can be divided nto three stages: first stage, from 1700 to 1900, when neurosurgery as carried out by general surgeons; second stage, from 1900 to 930, when brain surgery was performed by general surgeons, espeially devoted to the pathology of the nervous system; third stage, rom 1930 to 1940, when neurosurgery was performed by neurosureons trained in Europe and the United States (1).