Welcome to the Education & Training Hub

As the leading society in coloproctology in Europe, the goal of ESCP's Education Committee is to deliver and expand high-quality, contemporary education for colorectal surgeons, and allied healthcare professionals, in training and practice. The committee aims to educate to the highest standard across Europe. The key aims of the committee are fulfilled by:

  • Creating an educational portfolio at the ESCP annual meeting
  • Developing internet-based educational resources on the website
  • Actively disseminating interactive educational content to members across Europe
  • Creating a year around educational platform, the European School of Coloproctology

This year we organised and ran this pre-conference workshop at Nice Acropolis Centre. 40 delegates attended the lecture/symposium only session in the morning, and 20 delegates attended the practical aspect of this workshop. This one-day workshop comprised theoretical presentations and practical exercises for the safe and effective application of open and laparoscopic approaches for the repair and prevention of parastomal hernia.

This event was financially sponsored by Frankenman International Limited and equipment was donated by Medtronic, Karl Storz, Applied Medical, Cook Medical, SurgiMend and Frankenman International Limited.

In the lecture/symposium session, course director Imran Aslam gave a brief overview of workshop and introduced the faculty to delegates.

World experts discussed the surgical anatomy of abdominal wall, the need for and timing of parastomal hernia repair, techniques for prophylactic mesh reinforcement and repair of parastomal hernia and abdominal wall reconstruction:

  • Miss Chelise Currow reviewed relevant surgical anatomy of abdominal wall and operative anatomy for different operative techniques.
  • Professor Neil Smart gave an excellent overview of the epidemiology of parastomal hernia, the scale of the problem, an update on current literature, and the need for and timing of parastomal hernia repair.
  • On operative techniques for parastomal hernia prevention and repair topic, Philipp Kirchhoff and Jan Lambrecht reviewed and discussed various operative techniques and their success rates.

Tips and tricks for different operative techniques were discussed and videos of different techniques were shown to delegates. Lectures also featured patient perspectives about operative and non-operative management of parastomal hernia from Sue Blackwell (a patient representative from UK). This followed an excellent presentation and review of literature by Ines Perez for financial implications in current financial climate and comparative cost effectiveness of different meshes used for parastomal hernia prevention and repair.

In later half of this session, Miguel Ureña and Sanjay Chaudhri presented and discussed various techniques for abdominal wall reconstruction, patient selection, preoperative evaluation and preparation required for different techniques. Both presenters complemented their presentations with videos of technique, operative outcome data and discussed advantages and pitfalls in various techniques used for abdominal wall reconstruction. Course director Imran Aslam closed the lectures only session after case base discussions with faculty and delegates to consolidate their views and learning.

For the hands-on part, specially designed silicone models were used to demonstrate laparoscopic and open techniques for parastomal hernia repair and prevention.

Delegates were demonstrated laparoscopic key hole repair by Jan Lambrecht and sugarbaker repair by Philipp Kirchhoff. Tips and tricks for both procedures were discussed with delegates who later practice these techniques on laparoscopic skill stations. A range of meshes (biological, synthetic and hybrid) and mesh securing devices (absorbable and non-absorbable tackers from Medtronic) was available to delegates to select and use for their practice. Sanjay Chaudhri demonstrated techniques of sub-rectus mesh reinforcement by using Alexis wound protector and SMART technique by using special circular stapling device Frankenman International Limited. Delegates practiced these techniques on different workstations under the supervision of different faculty members.

We expected that attendees would have left with an enhanced and practical understanding of the many ways to tackle parastomal hernia from a surgical perspective. Having heard from some of the world’s foremost experts on this, they will also be able to network with lecturers and fellow workshop delegates.


Photo gallery

Faculty group photoFaculty panelEquipmentCase slideHands on demonstrationHands on experienceStoma close up

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