Ludhiana, February 22
Dr Kulwinder Dua, Professor of Gastroenterology at Medical College of Wisconsin and Director, Pancreatic Biliary Section, Digestive Diseases Centre; and Head, Department of Gastroenterology at VA Hospital, Milwaukee (USA), delivered a guest lecture at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) here today.

Acute pancreatitis, which was a serious condition affecting pancreas due to consumption of alcohol or gall stone disease, the visiting doctor talked at length about various endoscopic and surgical techniques used in the treatment of pancreatitis.

Dr Dua, who has developed a stent with a pressure-sensitive valve that prevents reflux for oesophageal carcinomas, observed that the benefits of this stent might extend well beyond patients with esophageal cancer. However, the device was currently approved only for cancer-related swallowing difficulty.

Dr Dua has more than 100 publications to his credit. He has been voted as the 'Master Endoscopist' for the year 2004 by the American College of Gastroenterology.

Dr Rajoo Singh Chhina, Medical Superintendent and Head of Gastroenterology at the DMCH said Dr Dua had shown keen interest to have bilateral studies and projects with local the institutions. Dr Jagdeep Whig, Vice Principal of DMCH also interacted with the visiting faculty for possible interactive ties between the Medical College at Milwaukee and the DMCH.

Dr L.S. Chawla, Former Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, felicitated Dr Dua.

Ludhiana, February 22
A two-day workshop on nutrition was organised by the Department of Social Security, Women and Child Development, Punjab, with the support of the Sai Lok Charitable Trust, Ludhiana, for anganwari workers, pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls at Rambagh in Nanak Nagar here on Tuesday.

Dr Rajinder Gulati of the Paediatrics Department at the ESIC Model Hospital here highlighted the importance of better nutrition of mothers in decreasing the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) infants.

He said India was ranked first in cases of burden of births and neonatal deaths, adding that LBW infants had a higher risk of mortality.

“There are about 1.2 million neonatal deaths per year, which is about 30 per cent of all neonatal deaths in the world. The neonatal mortality rate (NMR) of 44 per 1,000 live births translates into at least two newborns every minute in the country. Kerala has the lowest NMR (10 per cent) while Orissa has the highest NMR (61 per cent). The main causes of NMR are neonatal infections (52 per cent), birth asphyxia (20 per cent) and prematurity (15 per cent),” he said.

Dr Gulati added that India had the highest number of LBW infants, born with less than 2500 gram weight.

UNICEF’s state-of-the-world’s children report had cited 30 per cent incidence of LBW newborns in India, with three-fourth of these being full-term (born after 37 weeks of pregnancy) and only between 11 and 14 per cent pre-term. LBW infants, he said.

He remarked that while most LBW infants could be managed at home or a first-level health facility using simple low-cost measures, only a small fraction of them needed to be cared for in better-equipped centres.

Ludhiana, February 22
Prominent laparoscopy surgeon of the northern region Dr Narotam Dewan stressed the importance of right selection of candidates to undergo laparoscopic surgery and intensive training of surgeons in the field.

While presenting a paper on 'How to be a safe Laparoscopy surgeon' at the 7th National Congress of Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endosurgeons at Bangalore last week, Dr Dewan, Chief Laparoscopic and General Surgeon at Dewan Hospital here observed that interest in laparoscopic surgery had increased throughout the world like wild fire. “Some surgeons had taken up these procedures without any formal training and were self-taught. Such a situation is risky both for the patient as well as the surgeons," he said.

Dr Dewan also chaired a technical session on laparoscopic paper presentations. More than 1700 delegates from all over the world attended the conference.

Focusing on new concepts of training, which involved proper selection of candidates, appropriate training curriculum, latest training inventions like virtual reality surgical trainers, 3-D simulators, head-mounted display trainers and the concept of structured training, he stated that in the concept of structured training, the surgical procedure was broken down into logical components and the surgeon was taught to perform these individual steps independently under supervision. "The simulator is like the ones used to train pilots. While training on the virtual recording simulators, any mistake committed during training gets recorded and the surgeon can review it repeatedly to avoid it in future," he said.

The city surgeon denounced laparoscopy procedures being conducted by some surgeons under spinal anaesthesia and deemed it dangerous as it might lead to accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood which might further lead to cardiac problems. He emphasised the need to have cardiac and blood gas monitors to keep a constant watch on these parameters.

Dr Dewan remarked that many parallels could be drawn between aviation and laparoscopic surgery since both depended on high technology equipment and highly trained people behind them.