The Alfred Hospital Intensive Course in General Surgery 2021

29–30 October 2021, Pullman Melbourne on the Park

The Department of General Surgery at The Alfred Hospital Melbourne is once again holding its biennial meeting. The Alfred Hospital Intensive Course in General Surgery is scheduled to take place at Pullman Melbourne on the Park from Friday 29 October to Saturday 30 October 2021.

The course targets all general surgeons and Trainees with a wide range of surgical interests. Course highlights include new perspectives on challenging problems, major intra-operative abdominal bleeding, improving outcomes by thinking laterally and a colorectal operative surgery symposium.

While the current climate means we are unable to have overseas speakers join us this time, we are delighted to bring you an array of excellent national keynote speakers including:

• Professor Andrew Stevenson, a colorectal surgeon from Brisbane. Professor Stevenson is Head of the Colorectal Surgery department at Royal Brisbane Hospital, and Associate Professor of Colorectal Surgery at the University of Queensland.

• Professor Peter Stanton, an endocrine surgeon from Hobart. Professor Stanton has extensive experience in all areas of thyroid and parathyroid surgery, but especially in the areas of surgery for MEN1 and re-operative surgery.

• Associate Professor David Cavallucci, a hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgical oncologist from Brisbane. Dr Cavallucci is a graduate of the two-year ANZHPBA post-Fellowship program in HPB surgery and of the surgical oncology and abdominal transplantation Fellowship at the University of Toronto.

• Ms Jane Fox from Melbourne. Ms Fox is the current Director of Breast Services at Monash Health encompassing breast surgery and Monash BreastScreen. Ms Fox also has a senior role in the multidisciplinary team which includes medical imaging, medical oncology and radiation oncology at the Monash Cancer Centre.

• Dr David Martin, a laparoscopic and upper GI surgeon from Sydney. Dr Martin is a consultant surgeon at both the Concord and Royal Prince Alfred University Hospitals in Sydney. Dr Martin is involved in the provision and initiation of cutting-edge, evidence-based health care and the development of world class tertiary upper gastrointestinal, laparoscopic and obesity surgical units.

• Dr Leigh Rutherford, a general surgeon from the Gold Coast. Dr Rutherford specialises in laparoscopic gastrointestinal, endocrine and melanoma surgery.

As always, in addition to our invited keynote speakers, an extensive list of the outstanding faculty of The Alfred Hospital will join us to provide further perspectives and presentations.

The course has been scheduled to enable delegates to go on to enjoy the long weekend in Melbourne.

There are five sessions on Friday and three on Saturday morning, including breakfast sessions on both mornings. The breakfast sessions include a Thyroid Surgery Masterclass on Friday morning and a session on Key Manoeuvres in Trauma Surgery on Saturday morning, which is proudly supported by our platinum sponsor, Medtronic. For the first time, we will also have a Saturday afternoon session, a Colorectal Operative Surgery Symposium with presentations including ‘Time for a helping hand – when to use a hand port for the general surgeon’ and ‘Quality care in colorectal practice’ delivered by keynote speaker Professor Andrew Stevenson, and a selection of other informative talks and case scenarios not to be missed.

Session one relates to new perspectives on challenging problems and includes when and how to perform a bile duct exploration, updates on surgery for inflammatory bowel disease, evolving melanoma surgical indications enabled by novel systemic therapies, managing enteric fistulas in the open abdomen and breast localisation – the future is wireless.

The second session focuses on meeting current and future standards of care in relation to what we have learnt from Covid-19, measuring outcomes in emergency surgery, tips and tricks for surgery administration, expectations and supervisory requirements around surgical Trainees and defining and managing surgical risk.

The first session after lunch focuses on major intra-operative abdominal bleeding as it relates to laparoscopic upper GI surgery, liver and pancreas, gall bladder and colorectal surgery and vascular control for general surgeons.

The final session on Friday is about thinking laterally and how we can improve outcomes by doing so. It focuses on operative approaches to large hiatus hernias, DVT prophylaxis guidelines, parathyroidectomy, muscularity in gastro-intestinal cancer as an outcome predictor, and improving outcomes with randomised controlled trials. On Friday evening at the conclusion of this session, a welcome reception will follow in the exhibition area.

On Saturday morning, the first session after breakfast is on dilemmas and difficult problems and deals with topics relating to re-operations in bariatric surgery, de-escalation of adjuvant therapies for breast cancer, complex ventral hernias and their standard of care, avoiding functional issues following GI surgery and updates on treatment and surgical options for pilonidal disease.

The scientific program concludes with a session focused on the nitty-gritty of surgical techniques, including presentations around GIST tumours, colorectal liver metastasis, oncoplastic breast surgery, gastric bypass and laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy, followed by the Colorectal Operative Surgery Symposium.

The Alfred Hospital Intensive Course in General Surgery should appeal to general surgeons in all areas and all subspecialties.

We look forward to your attendance at the course and once again being able to come together with our colleagues.

Professor Jonathan Serpell AM FRACS Convener, The Alfred Hospital Intensive Course in General Surgery 2021

Early bird registration closes on 19 September 2021. Register online now: www.alfredgeneralsurgerymeeting. com

For more information, contact:

RACS Conferences & Events Management

T: +61 3 9249 1117 orE: alfred@surgeons.org