The historic and emblematic city of Athens was the host city of the 15th Regional ESCP Masterclass themed 'Techniques and Technology in Colorectal Surgery' on the 3 April 2025, for the first time.
This masterclass took place at the modern amphitheater of Henry Dunant Medical Centre and attracted 103 delegates from Greece, Turkey and Ukraine. From historic perspective this masterclass was unique as in its faculty participated three ESCP Presidents! Past President Eloy Espin (Spain), current President Antonino Spinelli (Italy) and future President Frederic Ris (Switzerland)!
The 15th Regional ESCP Masterclass constituted a pre-congress high value education event as it preceded the 4th Biannual National Meeting of the Greek Society of Coloproctology (GSCP). Moreover, it was paired with the first day of the GSCP meeting, which was conducted in English as an international forum, and its first session was a joint symposium with ESCP.
The masterclass dealt with current advances in colorectal surgery by appraising established and contemporary techniques that belong in the armamentarium of the modern era colorectal surgeon.
A session in modern proctology opened the first half of the masterclass. In this session a variety of topics were presented, ranging from fistulas and haemorrhoids to pelvic floor disorders and high resolution anoscopy. It was followed by the benign colorectal disease session, in which topics in IBD, diverticular disease and rectal prolapse were critically reviewed.
The rectal cancer session opened the afternoon half of the masterclass. This session included revisiting established techniques, such as ISR and pull through procedure as well as robotic TME and TTSS anastomotic strategy for low rectal cancer tumours. The latter technique, presented by current ESCP President Antonino Spinelli (Italy), is supported by high quality evidence from two European centres as it has substantially reduced anastomotic leakage. The colon cancer session concluded the masterclass with speakers elegantly covering modern debates such as CME, ICG for lymph node mapping, splenic flexure tumours management and right colon anastomotic techniques.
The organising committee and GSCP would like to sincerely thank the stellar international and local experts’ faculty of the masterclass. More specifically Prof. Carlo Ratto (Italy), Prof. Andre D’Hoore (Belgium), Mr Janindra Warusavitarne (UK), Prof. Eloy Espin (Spain), Prof. Antonino Spinelli (Italy), Prof. Frederic Ris (Switzerland), Mr Achilleas Tsiamis (UK), Dr Zoe Garoufalia (USA) and experts from Greece - Prof. George Theodoropoulos, Dr Konstantinos Stamou, Dr Konstantinos Mavrantonis, Dr Eleni Andriopoulou, Mr Dimitrios Patsouras and Prof. Christos Kontovounisios.
Greek Society of Coloproctology would also like to thank all participants and sponsors for their support and ESCP for providing the opportunity and honour to host this superb masterclass!