With an excellent organization and a high level of presentations, the Continuing Education Course in Organ Transplants by the Latin American and Caribbean Transplant Congress was held in the city with heritage and history of Quito, Ecuador.
The event that took place on 7 and 8 May, had the attendance of outstanding Latin American teachers, as well as important persons of the Organization for the Transplant of organs and tissues (onTOT). Representatives from Ecuador's Ministry of Health of Ecuador and from the President of the Latin American and Caribbean Transplant Society (STALYC), Dr. José Toro.
Scientific Presentations
This transplant activity for the first time managed to gather internists, nephrologists, gastroenterologists, vascular surgeons and eternal surgeons, from the three most important cities in Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca), with a total of 103 professionals registered, which permitted knowing their reality, experiences and problems.The first day was dedicated to the development of the renal transplant program, and after the welcome by the authorities, the President of the STALYC presented the Situation of Transplants in Latin American and the Caribbean and the reality of the Latin American Society, then Dr. Domingo Casadei, Director of the Renal and Renal-Pancreas Program at the Instituto de Nefrología in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dealt with the subjects of Acute Cellular Rejection– New immunosuppressant outlines and Donors with expanded criteria.
Then Dr. Jacqueline Pefaur, Head of the Nephrology Service and the Transplant Program at the Barros Luco Trudeau Hospital in Santiago, Chile, presented the subject acute humoral rejection and viral infections in Transplants.
The surgical subjects Laparoscopic Nephrectomy versus Classic Nephrectomy and surgical complications during transplant and therapeutic strategies, were dealt with by Dr. Alejandro Niño Murcia, Transplant surgeon at the Colombian Transplant Unit.
Finally, Dr. José Toro, President of the STALYC and Head of the Transplant Program at the Carlos Van Buren Hospital in Valparaíso, Chile, presented the subject delay in the function of the insert. Ending the day with an intense round table where fundamentally the transplant policy of Ecuador was discussed, its failings and its potential solutions.
The second day was dedicated exclusively to Liver Transplant and the scientific presentations were done by Dr. Rosa María Pérez, Gastroenterologist at the Hepatology Unit and Liver transplant Unit of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Dr. Rodrigo Zapata, Gastroenterology at the Liver Transplant Unit of the Clínica Alemana in Santiago, Chile, and Dr. Mario Uribe, President de la Chilean Transplant Society and Hepatobiliary Surgeon at the Hospital del Salvador and Clínica Las Condes, in Chile. Some of the subjects presented were Liver transplants: Current situation, Indications and Counter-indications; Pediatric Liver Transplant; liver and hepatitis C transplant; Immunosuppressants in liver transplants and live Donor in liver transplant.
The course was carried out with a high level of attendance and an active participation by those attending, who showed a great deal of interest in developing the transplant activity in their respective cities.
ONTOT (Organización Nacional de trasplante de Órganos y Tejidos- National Organization for Organ and Tissue Transplant) Ecuador
Dr. Fernando Naranjo, President of the ONTOT in his balance states textually: "With my most sincere emotion and that of the personnel from the Organization for Organ and Tissue Transplant, I thank you for your highly commendable Continuing Education Course in Renal and Liver Transplant offered by the Latin American and Caribbean Transplant Society on 7 and 8 May.
Effectively, the generosity of all the distinguished professors, who beating obstacles and interrupting their private activities came to our patrimonial and historic city, which permitted us to comply with a course that exceeded our expectations.
It is the first time that an event is held here that gathers internists, nephrologists, gastroenterologists and surgeons. This will make it understood that organ transplants are multidisciplinary and that for this all egos and personalisms must be left aside and the physicians must integrate with the generosity that you showed.
We have been able to understand that our clinics and surgeons must complete stages and decidedly take on the investigation of all the transplant processes in their hospital units.
A fundamental point is the awareness that transplant processes must have professional players, that is that they must consider themselves en definitive Transplant specialists. In conclusion, the course has been enlightening, motivating, setting an example, and will allow us to reinforce policies and initiate processes that increase the organ transplants that are so necessary for our waiting lists that are ever longer ".
STALYC
For Dr. José Toro, President of the Latin American and Caribbean Transplant Society "I have had the satisfaction and honor of organizing the two first Continuing Education Courses by the STALYC; the first in the city of Cochabamba, in Bolivia in the year 2008 and this one in the city of Quito, Ecuador. It was difficult to get its acceptance, due to different administrative-type local problems, but after insisting for over a year, we finally obtained the support of Dr. Fernando Naranjo, the new president of the ONTOT in Ecuador, who gave us his full support for the organization.
For the STALYC it was very important to hold this course in Ecuador, due to its potentialities in the area of transplants that had not been sufficiently developed until now.
The course as such was a success due to the level of the program carried out as well as due to the quality of the presenters and the large attendance, which exceeded 100 people registered. I believe that the most notable, within the objectives achieved, was the fact of generating motivation and an important debate between those attending, related to the problems existing in Ecuador, and the factors and limitations that impede them from developing their transplant programs. The fact that the STALYC organized this course permitted professionals from all over the country to attend and that acted as a limk between the Ecuadorian transplant community.
In summary, I believe that it is indispensable to continue with the organization of these courses in countries will less development in our activity, since they are an injection of stimulus and an enriching experience for its transplant programs. I must thank our hosts in Ecuador and the teachers for their generosity, since without their support it would be impossible to develop this important activity that promotes us as a scientific Society".