FIRST BIENNIAL CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 19 - 20 AT GANGARAM HOSPITAL – NEW DELHI

 
The first meeting of our group was indeed a very successful one. Dr. Rakesh Khazanchi, Dr.Aditya Aggarwal and the entire team of Plastic Surgery Department at Gangaram Hospital, New Delhi have to be congratulated for the excellent organisation and hospitality they extended to the Delegates

On 18th afternoon Prof. Chuang along with the organisers and some of us examined the cases for the operative sessions. It was a useful session to share the rich experience of Prof. Chuang. A patient who needed a free muscle transfer for the right forearm was chosen for demonstration to be held on 19th Feb 2005.

The Executive Committee met at 7.30pm at India Habitat Centre under the Presidentship of Prof.R. Venkataswami. The following members attended.
     
1.Prof. G. Balakrishnan

2.Dr. Anil Bhatia

3.Prof. Mukund Reddy 

4. Dr. Rakesh Khazanchi

5. Dr. Mukund Thatte   

6. Dr. Aditya Aggarwal

7.Dr. Goutham Biswas            
 
Prof. Abraham Thomas and Dr. Ashok Gupta and the secretary Dr. Rajasabapathy could not attend the meeting due to unavoidable reasons.

His report of the Brachial Plexus Surgery group for the year 2004 was placed before the committee. According to the report there are 29 Founder Members and their contribution of 5000 each is in the SB account of Karur Vysya Bank, Coimbatore.

The Executive Committee suggested that a sum of Rupees 1 lakh and Twentyfive thousand may be invested in Reserve Bank Bond and the interest may be used for the running expenses.

Then the proposed constitution was taken up for discussion. With some suggestions from the members the final draft was approved to be placed before the general body.

With regard to the website there was general satisfaction and a few suggestions such as automatic intimation to the members about the new cases posted for discussion, and easy access for members to alter their personal details were accepted.

It was also decided that Prof. R. Venkataswami will continue to be incharge of the website for the present and Mr. Nagaraj of Chennai will continue to be the Web Master.

The election of office bearers was then taken up. The President suggested that this being a small group the elections should be on the basis of consensus and healthy conventions should be established. He suggested that G. Balakrishnan can be the next President and Prof. Abraham Thomas can be the Vice President. Dr. Rajasabapathy can continue for one more term. For the executive committee Dr. Mukund Thatte and Prof. Mukund Raddy can continue. Dr. Gowtham Biswas and Dr. Anil Bhatia can be the new members. This was agreed upon by the Executive Committee and it was decided to place this before General body for approval.
 
On 19th February the workshop began with Guest lectures by the invited faculty. Following this a live demonstration of secondary Reconstruction of forearm muscles by Free vascularised Gracilis transfer was shown by Prof. Chuang.

In the afternoon following lunch the workshop was formally inaugurated by Dr.Sharma the Director of Gangaram Hospital. The Founder President Prof. R. Venkataswami gave his presidents remarks on the growth of our group and the need for strengthening it for the future.

The general body met at 6pm on 19th February at the venue of the conference.

Prof. R. Venkataswami Founder President presided. He welcomed all the members and appealed for the active participation of all the members in the deliberations of the group. The secretary’s report was presented in his absence and approved. Similarly the new constitution with the amendments by the executive committee was presented and approved. Members were asked to actively participate in the website for case discussions.

The venue for the year 2007 was fixed as Mumbai and Dr. Anil Bhatia was chosen as the organising secretary. The election of office bearers as recommended by his executive committee was unanimously accepted.

Following this there was a Banquet at 8pm at India Habitat Centre

On 20th the programme for the day was started with a keynote address by Prof.R.Venkataswami. “On current trends and challenges in the management of Brachial Plexus Injuries”. The thrust was on the challenges. The real break through will be in making the proximal axons to reach their destination and to maintain the muscle nutrition till the axons reach them. The future role of electronic devices in moving the paralysed joints is to be researched. The address ended with the need to treat this as a National problem and more and more young surgeons should come forward to tackle this problem.

The short papers and guest lectures covered all aspects of the Brachial Plexus Injuries.

Prof. Panupan and Prof. Chuang dealt the subject extensively based on their experiences.

At the end there was a case discussion and the cases were presented from Dr.Rajasabapathy’s Hospital. It evoked lot of interest among the participants.

At 3pm the concluding ceremony was held. Prof. R. Venkataswami thanked the foreign faculty and with the permission of the members of the group conferred the Honorary membership of our group on Prof. Panupan and Prof. Chuang.

He congratulated Dr. Rakesh Khazanchi, his colleagues and members of the staff of Plastic Surgery Department of Gangaram Hospital for the successful conduct of the workshop. Later the new office bearers were installed. Prof. R. Venkataswami handed over the President’s medallion to Prof. G. Balakrishnan marking his installation as new President. Prof. G. Balakrishnan promised to do his best for the growth of our group. With this the 1st Biennial meeting came to a close.

Photo's taken during the conference. Click on each to have a larger view of the photo