Ludhiana, February 25
More than 25 international experts, 40 national faculty and 1000 surgeon delegates participated in the biggest-ever conference on endoscopic surgery held here from February 18-21.
Prominent among the international faculty were Dr Philippe Mouret from France, who did the first laparoscopic surgery in the world. He recalled the time when he initiated this procedure in 1989 and was castigated for the same. He stressed it was surgeons alone who were able to choose the tools of their art.
Prof Sir Alfred Cuschieri, who performed the first laparoscopic surgery in the UK, spoke about the management of intestinal liver and gall bladder cancer.
He was of the opinion that laparoscopic surgery would need more experts and experienced hands. The success in treating cancer patients in the initial stages was good. He mentioned methods and technologies which could destroy cancer cells without surgery. He was all praise for the Indian surgeons.
Prof M. J. McMohan, a leading laparoscopic surgeon from the UK, demonstrated laparoscopic pancreatic and gastric surgery for pseudocyst and common bile duct. He cautioned the surgeons to be aware of bile duct injury during surgery.
Dr Luc Lemmens from Belgium, an expert in treating obese patients, during his guest lecture gave details of the surgical techniques and methods to decrease weight. Laparoscopically, the size of the stomach was made smaller so that the patient felt full after eating small amounts of food and thus, the weight decreases.
Dr H. O. Nielsen from Denmark spoke on the role of laparoscopic ultrasound to diagnose liver, Pancreatic and other intra-abdominal diseases. In this method a miniature ultrasound probe was passed into the abdomen through a small hole which could detect intra-abdominal diseases accurately. The success rate was more than 95 per cent.
Dr T. Yamakawa from Japan, during his guest lecture, informed that there was a large number of patients of gastric cancer in Japan. If detected early, it could be treated by endoscopic mucosal resection of cancer.
Dr S. S. Ngoi from Singapore demonstrated needlescopic gall bladder surgery with very fine instruments without skin sutures. This procedure gave excellent cosmetic results and the patient could be discharged the same day.
Dr Russell Stitz from Australia, Dr Michael Lee from Hong Kong, Dr Paisal from Thailand, Dr Zheng Minhua from China, Dr Piet Pattyn from Belgium, Dr A. Y. Jasmi from Malaysia, Dr Ashutosh Kaul from the USA, and Dr Davide Lomanto from Singapore delivered guest lectures.
During the three-day conference, 12 live operations were performed free of cost by international and national surgeons and more than 200 papers and videos presented, depicting new developments and recent trends in laparoscopic surgery.
