Largest International Conference Hosted by UNMC/NHS This Decade: More Than 265 Transplant Experts To Attend
More than 265 transplant experts from around the world will be coming to Omaha this week for the VI International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium Oct. 6 to 9 at the Embassy Suites Downtown. The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Health System are hosts of the event.
The symposium attendees represent 25 foreign countries and 24 states. It is the largest international conference held by UNMC/NHS in the past decade. The attendees have filled all the rooms in the Embassy Suites and a number of people are staying in three other downtown hotels.
"The symposium is held every two years," said Alan Langnas, D.O., professor of surgery and chief of the section of transplantation for UNMC. "This marks the sixth symposium that has been held, and some of the previous sites have included Paris, London, Cambridge and Pittsburgh. We're pleased to be in this company."
Small bowel transplants have come a long way in the past few years, Dr. Langnas said. They were originally considered experimental high-risk procedures, but now they have become well established and at times routinely applied therapy. Most small bowel transplant recipients are children born with serious intestinal problems. Without a small bowel transplant, these individuals can never eat solid food and are destined to be on total parenteral nutrition their entire life.
The conference kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 6, with an evening reception. The formal presentations will run from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7, and from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8.
Dr. Langnas said this year's symposium will address a number of medical issues faced by small bowel transplant patients, including patient selection, operative procedures, immunosuppression, management of complications and long-term follow-up. Other topics will include living-related transplantation and the role of non-transplant medical and surgical therapies.
The symposium will feature more than 140 abstracts, including 65 poster presentations. There will be five invited lecturers, including two from UNMC/NHS. Presenters and their topics will be:
- Paul Hyman, M.D., Children's Hospital of Orange County, Orange, Calif., "Munchhausen by Proxy: Evaluation of Patients with Intestinal Failure";
- Robert Shulman, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, Houston, "Update on Total Parenteral Nutrition";
- Jon Vanderhoof, M.D., UNMC, "Current State of Probiotics in the Treatment and Prevention of Gastrointestinal Disease";
- Adrian Bianchi, M.D., Royal Manchester Children Hospital, Middleton Manchester, United Kingdom, "Non-Transplant Surgery for Intestinal Failure";
- Eamonn Quigley, M.D., UNMC and the National University of Ireland at Cork, Cork, Ireland, "Motility Disorders and Patient Selection for Intestinal Transplantation."
Since 1990, the UNMC/NHS program has performed 41 small bowel transplants and 53 combined small bowel/liver transplants. The UNMC/NHS program ranks among the three busiest small bowel transplant programs in the country along with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Miami.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state. Through its commitment to research, education, outreach and patient care, UNMC has established itself as one of the country's leading centers for cancer research and treatment and solid organ transplantation. More than $32 million in research grants and contracts are awarded to UNMC scientists annually. In addition, UNMC's educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution.
Nebraska Health System (NHS) is the partnership of Clarkson Hospital, the first hospital in Nebraska, and University Hospital, the primary teaching facility for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The combined hospital is an 835-bed facility and serves approximately 25 percent of the Omaha-area market. NHS operates clinics and health care centers serving Omaha, Plattsmouth, Gretna and Auburn in Nebraska; and Council Bluffs and Shenandoah in Iowa. In addition, NHS physicians operate more than 300 outpatient clinics in 100 communities in four states. NHS provides access to tertiary and primary care including world-class specialized treatment such as solid organ transplantation, burn care, wound care, geriatrics, bone marrow (stem cell) transplantation and other cancer treatments. NHS affiliate hospitals include Shenandoah Memorial Hospital and Community Hospital in Fairfax, Mo.