Journal of Pediatric Surgery 49 (2014) 328–329

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Summary of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (60th) Congress in Bournemouth, July 17th–19th, 2013 Mark Davenport ⁎ Department of Paediatric Surgery, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

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Article history: Received 31 October 2013 Accepted 10 November 2013

a b s t r a c t This is a summary of the 60th British Association of Paediatric Surgeons Congress held in Bournemouth, UK, on July 17th–19th, 2013. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Key words: Societies Medical surgical associations Paediatrics

The old music hall song “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, Oh I do like be beside the sea” encapsulates the lure, fascination, and attraction of sea and sand. July 2013 was a hot one with blistering sun and clear blue skies – i.e., not your average English summer! The Bournemouth International Conference Centre hosted the 60th annual summer BAPS congress, and delegates joined the throng of summer visitors and holidaymakers on the south coast of England. The meeting attracted 293 submissions, which were marked by a panel of over 20 BAPS members, and of these 91 were accepted and presented as oral papers and 77 as posters. There were 331 registered delegates with about a third arriving from outside of the UK. Twenty companies provided commercial sponsorship for the meeting. There were a number of add-ons before the main event opened with a Research and Experimental Club focusing on inflammatory bowel disease and organised by Mike Stanton (Southampton) and a very successful UK trainee session organised by themselves. The prize for best presentation in the latter’s session was awarded to Thomas Cundy from Imperial College, London, on the “Development of a Sensing Enhanced Simulation Environment (SENSE) for Minimally Invasive Surgery”. The scientific showpiece of the entire meeting was the Peter Paul Rickham and President’s Prize sessions – the medals of which were awarded to David Wilkinson from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, for “Neural Progenitors from Aganglionic Bowel – New Therapeutic Possibilities for Hirschsprung’s Disease” and Clare Rees from the Royal London Hospital for her “Scissors that Cut…” an authoritative account of one woman’s quest for decent surgical instruments in the 21st century. Prizes were also awarded to poster presentations

⁎ Corresponding author at: King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RH. Tel.: +44 203 299 3350; fax: +44 203 299 4021. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0022-3468/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2013.11.046

and included Priya Ramachandran from KK Childs Trust Hospital in Chennai, India. Michael Harrison from the San Francisco Fetal Treatment Center was awarded the prestigious Denis Browne Medal for 2013. It is rare for one man to be recognised as developing an entirely new discipline in our surgical practice, but this he so obviously did for fetal surgery. This award clearly chimed with Denis Browne’s vision of leadership and innovation and was so richly deserved. Even now, in his retirement he is still chasing ideas and strategies using “a little bit of pressure”. The auditorium stood as one and applauded generously. There were a number of invited guest lectures in the congress from home and abroad. One of the unique features of the often-maligned NHS in the UK is its ability to direct and centralize paediatric surgical practice. It has done this with biliary atresia, but it also directed that bladder exstrophy management be limited to only two centres in England and Wales. This was the subject of Alan Dickson’s assured Isabella Forshall Lecture (see page XX) and he described the evolution and development of the Manchester experience with this complex condition. George Youngson from Aberdeen delivered an oration as the Mason Brown Lecturer on various aspects of surgical education and training which had implications and resonance far beyond our shores (see page 241). Michael LaQuaglia from Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City brought us right up to date with a masterful account of the treatment of high risk neuroblastoma and advanced hepatoblastomas among others in the Journal of Pediatric Surgical Lecture (see page 233). By complete contrast, the Storz Lecture was as far from conventional surgery as possible and completely off-piste in that it was delivered by a vet! Not just any veterinarian though. Dr Romain Pizzi works for the Royal Zoological Society at Edinburgh Zoo and travels the world endoscoping and laparoscoping a wide spectrum of exotic creatures. His patients included snakes, bears, tigers, elephants, and the audience was mesmerized by images

M. Davenport / Journal of Pediatric Surgery 49 (2014) 328–329

and videos of weird operations on strange looking viscera in exotic fauna from faraway lands. Forty-five papers were submitted to the JPS publications committee and my thanks goes to Ian Sugarman, Kokila Lakhoo, Majella McCullagh, Simon Huddart, and Paul Johnson, who evaluated each and every paper. This committee has chosen a selection ranging from science projects on tissue specific mutation in Hirschsprung’s disease (page 258) and molecular signalling involved in the development of the cremaster muscle (page 312) to the more clinically familiar with exemplary papers on the surgical treatment of achalasia from Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and a large series on restorative proctocolectomy (both laparoscopic and open) from Newcastle. The president’s reception was held in the motor museum at Beaulieu, sited in the heart of the New Forest. Drinks and canapés were served amid a special exhibition of James Bond© paraphernalia with original and stunt Aston Martins (the "invisible" Vanquish, the modern-day DBS, and the incomparable original DB5 from Goldfinger), Lotuses (even the underwater Esprit from “The Spy Who Loved Me”), and the original Little Nellie which was an autogyro featured in the 1967 film “You Only Live Twice”. The annual dinner was held in the Highcliffe Marriott hotel, overlooking the broad expanse of Bournemouth beach and that relic of a bygone, more carefree age, the pier. A special effort was made to attract the surviving ex-presidents of the BAPS to this anniversary meeting, and although some perhaps needed ECT to get through the evening others,

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such as Sean Corkery, needed no such stimulation. His speech was uproarious; being hilarious with deft comic timing but scattered with poignant observations on the ravages of age and the passing of generations. A special mention must also be made to one of my predecessors in the editor’s chair, Dan Young, who attended each and every event and whose written contribution on the origins of the organisation head off this edition. Sadly, this article proved to be his swan song as passed away a week or so after completing the project from his hospice bed (see page 251). Of course the beloved beach beckoned, and plenty of people took the offer of a quick dip in the briny sea. For those with a packed scientific and social schedule, this could only be fitted in the early hours of the morning, and my thanks go to Lara Kitteringham, Sean Marvin, Alex Barnacle et alia for organising this unusual nocturnal reverie. Next year BAPS travels north and heads back to Edinburgh and Bonnie Scotland. The sceptics said this year’s summer would be washed out, so given that the last two excursions to Scotland including dense freezing fog, thunderstorms, and a downpour in Edinburgh Castle we expect nothing less than a sub-tropical climate and bright balmy evenings. It will be a jointly organised affair with the IPEG, so we also expect to be fascinated and left in a perpetual state of awe and wonderment by state of the art minimally invasive techniques, nanotechnology, cutting-edge robotic surgery, and the oft-promised benefits of natural orifice surgery.

Summary of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (60th) Congress in Bournemouth, July 17th-19th, 2013.

This is a summary of the 60th British Association of Paediatric Surgeons Congress held in Bournemouth, UK, on July 17th-19th, 2013...
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