Deadline for January course at ORSI Institute in Belgium is 30 November
ESCP’s European School of Coloproctology is getting set to host its third dedicated course on Laparoscopic Complete Mesocolic Excision (Lap CME) early in 2020.
The comprehensive two-day course on the surgical practice used to treat colon cancer, supported by Medtronic, will take place on the 22nd and 23rd of January at the ORSI Institute in Ghent, Belgium.
The programme has been developed to support laparoscopic surgeons in performing Lap CME with central vascular litigation. Applications have been pouring in from all over Europe from Spain, Serbia, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, Germany, Italy and the UK. Due to the high demand additional observer places are being made available.
Course director Danilo Miskovic explains:
"This is the world’s only comprehensive training programme for Lap CME surgery. There is increasing evidence about the benefits of this type of surgery for patients with colon cancer. Surgical strategy and technique alone are likely to increase survival chances significantly. This course will help standardise practices across different countries.
"The fact it’s taking place in such a super-modern training facility is even more of a benefit for those participating. We’ll select candidates according to specific criteria such as their level of experience in undertaking colorectal resections and the number of colon and rectal cases their institution deals with on an annual basis."
The programme is unique in that it not only provides workshop and hands-on training on cadaveric models but it is followed up by the world-leading experts visiting the hospitals of the participants to support them with proctored live operating sessions of their first few cases.
Feedback from the first course which ran (insert when) in Hamburg was extremely positive.
Neil Sengupta was one of the participants:
"The first day immersed us in the concept of complete mesocolic excision and the second allowed us to put into practice what we learned from the first day on cadavers."
Another former participant, Chris McFaul, adds:
"There was plenty of time for discussion with all the faculty about the issues around CME. You get a lot of interaction with the trainers. It made me feel confident that I could start to, with the help of the proctorship, develop that further."
