The 5^th National Organ Retrieval Workshop (Oxford course) was held on 2^nd& 3^rd February 2019 at the M.S. Ramaiah Advanced Learning Centre, Bengaluru.This course was carefully designed in collaboration with international and national leaders in organ transplantation to train aspiring transplant surgeons in the techniques required for safe organ retrieval.

 

The Course Directors were Dr. Isabel Quiroga, Clinical Lead for Organ Retrieval, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK, Dr. Anand Subrahmanyam, Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Seshadripuram, Bengaluru, Dr. Sonal Asthana, Consultant, HPB and Transplant Surgeon, Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru, and Dr. Catherine Dushyanthy Sudarshan, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK.

 

The Course Faculty included Dr. Sunil Shroff and Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram from MOHAN Foundation, Dr.Harsha Jauhari, Dr. Darius F Mirza, Dr.Rehan Saif, Dr. Manoj SP, Dr. Bharat Dubey, Dr.Vivekanandan Shanmugham, Dr. Arun V, Dr. Mathew Jacob, and Dr. Rajiv Lochan.

 

There was a live webcast of a retrieval procedure on an anatomical specimen (cadaver model) by international faculty. It included heart, lung, liver and kidney retrieval in that order.There was an entirely separate module for renal surgeons. It covered renal-only retrieval (in situations where there were no abdominal surgeons toretrieve). Renal surgeons had the opportunity to perform renal implantation in a cadaver. There was a new session on recovery for pancreas for transplantation.The liver /abdominal surgeons also participated in the SPLIT course, where liver resections were performed on the explanted livers.Cardiac surgeons had the opportunity to perform both explants and implants. In addition, there were modules on DCD - rapid organ retrieval and LVAD. All participating surgeons had the option of enrolling for a subsidised European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT) online course which provides all educational material on the site free for a year.

 

The workshop was supported by The Integrated Liver Care Foundation, MOHAN Foundation, Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, Liver Transplantation Society of India, SBI Foundation, SBI DFHI Limited and Tata Trusts.