As Thursday dawned, thousands of delegates from across the globe packed into the Austria Center in Vienna for another highly anticipated day at ESCP’s 14th Annual conference.
Despite the early start, the New Trials Forum led by Dion Morton (UK) had a fantastic turnout. Four trials were reviewed by an expert panel; Charles Knowles (UK), Christianne Buskens (Netherlands), Nikolaos Gouvas (Greece) and Richard Hopper (UK). Following updates on MIRCAST, RESET and the PROPHER study, Alessandro Sgro (Italy) presented the latest research on behalf of the EuroSurg Collaborative ahead of their afternoon session which saw the launch of the new Compass study.
Next on the schedule for the day in the main auditorium was the joint ESCP/EAES symposium, chaired by Alexey Petrov (Russia) and Des Winter (Ireland). Antonino Spinelli kicked of the session with a presentation regarding SILS colectomy, followed by Robin Kennedy (UK) who discussed laparoscopic incision for colonic polyps. Roland Croner (Germany) then presented the techniques and pitfalls associated with Lap CME, sharing a series of videos including vessel dissections which showcased both successes and difficulties.
Roel Hompes (Netherlands) then delivered the first keynote lecture ‘Management of Malignant Rectal Polyp/Early Rectal Cancer’ which was chaired by Gian Andrea Binda (Italy) and Simon Bach (UK).
Immediately after lunch, delegates took their seats to get an insight into the Six Best Papers, chaired by Ian Daniels (UK) and Eva Angenete (Sweden). Each presentation delivered provided impressive data and detail, prompting several questions and discussions in Plenary Hall A.
Attendees could then choose between two afternoon symposia sessions:
- Atypical Colitis, Proctology and Anal Neoplasia, chaired by Nicola Fearnhead (UK), and Evangelos Xynos (Greece)
- Joint ESCP/ECCO symposium, chaired by Monica Millan (Spain), Zoran Krivokapic (Serbia)
The afternoon keynote lecture on prehabilitation, nutrition and optimisation for major surgery was delivered by US speaker, Debby Keller, Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Debby argued that the extent and duration of the stress response of a patient is proportionate to their pre-surgical condition and presented studies which identified that prehabilitation is feasible, safe and tolerable for patients.
And closing off the day was the session: ‘Better Surgical Care: a global challenge’ chaired by Dion Morton (UK) which looked at the developments in global trials and designing trials for global challenges.
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