Dilemmas and Debates in Colorectal Surgery 2016

Of those who attended the 4th Dilemmas and Debates in Colorectal Surgery Conference from the 9-12th November 2016 thank you for participating. This educational meeting would also not be possible with the financial assistance of industry – so thank you once again.

Year on year we have seen DDCRS conference getting ‘Bigger & Better’ since the original meeting in 2013. This year DDCRS 2016 was organized by The International University of Colon And Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS) & King’s College London (KCL) in association with The Società Italiana di Chirurgia Colo-Rettale (SICCR) & The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI). This was also the 5th joint meeting between ACPGBI & SICCR.

Overall we had 215 registered medical delegates to the meeting from 25 nations as far as Nepal of which 80 participated in robotic, pelvic floor US & HRM anophysiology, abdominal wall surgery and advanced laparoscopic dry-lab skills training workshops. The workshops were conducted in the New Clinical Skills facilities at King’s College Hospital.

The didactic sessions were once again stimulating, thought provoking and well presented by our well-chosen speakers and from around the world. The now traditional debate sessions did not disappoint! We had Prof Robin Phillips make a very strong plausible defence of ‘Anal fistula = fistulotomy’ against Dr David Zimmerman, we had a very interesting debate with a great deal of audience participation of ‘Peritonitis of diverticular origin – Laparoscopic lavage or resection’ between Dr Gian Andrea Binda and Dr Pascal Gervaz, and a lot lot more fiery debates…

For the first time DDCRS also included live surgery of a THD Gatekeeper For faecal Incontinence and a THD Haemorrhoid artery ligation surgery both performed by Mr Pasquale Giordano from our main operating theatres at King’s College Hospital. High-quality images and real time audio was streamed to The Strand Campus with the assistance of Olympus engineering. We also had a novel IBD MDT Symposium which was also well attended by gastroenterologist and general practitioners.

The collaboration of the DDCRS meeting with The Società Italiana di Chirurgia Colo-Rettale (SICCR) & The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI) worked extremely well to provide an Anglo-Italian Day’ on the 12th November. During this session we had a great contribution form learned Italian speakers. There were fantastic case presentations in the consultant’s corner by Prof Donato Francesco Altomare, Prof Paris Tekkis & Prof Narimantas Samalavicius. Prof Philippe Rouanet was the winner of the ‘oral presentation session – best of 6 papers’ with ‘Tailored strategy for locally-advanced rectal carcinoma: preliminary results of a phase II multicenter trial (GRECCAR 4)’. Our first state of the art lecture ‘Surgical management of chronic constipation’ was one of the best lectures we have heard on this topic and beautifully presented by Prof Charles Knowles.

60 patients/relatives also registered for the patient and relatives colorectal cancer support group session on the Friday 11th November. As well as enjoying an interactive didactic session, patients also had complimentary alternative therapeutic treatments provided by volunteering specialist.

We are also honoured to have Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE patron of the charitable organization Beating Bowel Cancer present the first DDCRS guest lecture on the Friday 11th November. This was a very emotional and inspiring lecture on ‘’Childhood Lasts a Lifetime’ to all the participants. Following the presentation, Baroness Benjamin was presented with The International University of Colon And Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS) honorary life time membership certificate.

The meeting was closed by Dr Philip Caushaj president of the International University of Colon And Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS).

Yes for our 5th DDCRS meeting we will be building on the success of previous meeting to provide an even ‘bigger & better’ exhilarating meeting. We have already started working on DDCRS 2017. The meeting will be from 7-9th December 2017 with the workshops on Saturday 9th November. SO SAVE THE DATE!!!

Once again thank you for all the speakers, participants and industry support for making DDCRS 2016 a success. We would also like to extend an appreciation to Medtronics who have strongly supported the meeting since 2013 and who together with Acelity/HC21 Healthcare were our Gold Sponsors in 2016.

Finally this meeting would not be possible without energetic administration and AV teams – Thank you Charles Everard, Tolu Salako, Jeff White, Barbara Hibbert, Michaela Montier-Riley & Shu-Ling Lin, King’s Venues team and for our colorectal cancer nurse practioners Lynne Higgins and Stella Beazley for organising the patient session.

We look forward to seeing you next year in DDCRS 2017 and wish you a Happy Christmas & New Year.

Regards,

Mr Joseph W Nunoo-Mensah
Professor Narimantas E. Samalavicius
Mr Pasquale Giordano
Dr Aldo Infantino