King Abdulaziz Hospital in Al-Ahsa recently organized the first annual surgery conference to deal with the latest developments in the field of surgery through extensive workshops, meetings and lectures. More than 200 consultants and surgeons from various hospitals in the Eastern Region attended the conference.

The Regional Executive Director for National Guard Health Affairs in the Eastern Province Dr. Ahmad Al Arfaj said that this conference is the first of its kind in the region and had attracted large numbers of those interested and involved in the important field of surgery. Furthermore, he stated that due to the important role this conference played in mediating between advanced international experience and cutting-edge medicine in the field of surgery, attendees and participants had requested similar conferences for the coming years.

Dr. Ahmed Al Salman - the Chairman for the Department of Surgery at King Abdulaziz Hospital and Chairman of the Organizing Committee- explained how this conference covered all branches of general surgery, orthopedic surgery, urology, ENT medicine and ophthalmology. The conference also addressed several issues facing doctors in their daily practice, pointing out how relevant it was that consultants and specialists in the Hospital discussed the various state-of-the-art systems and methods that the Department of Surgery and its staff of have to offer.

Around thirty eight lectures relating to the current advancement in performed surgeries were presented many of which King Abdulaziz Hospital in Al-Ahsa is prominent for especially laparoscopic surgery for obesity.

The Conference was held over a two day period. On the meeting of the first day it answered "Why Obesity Surgery?" through explaining the importance of such operations and the latest developments in managing the complications that might present in the rare laparoscopic gastric banding procedure. The second session discussed the methods of many procedures such as advanced rhinoplasty, balloon sinuplasty, tracheotomy and how to treat oral cancer.

On the third session they discussed the latest findings in urinary surgery while the fourth session addressed head trauma surgeries and neurosurgery, and concluded with papers on occupational surgery and the future of neurosurgery.

The second day dealt with the differences in lung cancer as well as damage control surgery, chest bruising and developments in treatment of rectal tumors. Then they reviewed various surgical procedures such as the developments replacing knee and hip joints and dealing with deformities of the anus and rectum. Afterwards, obesity surgery was discussed, including management of laparoscopic hernias, hemorrhoids, and the restructuring of the body.

Participants were accredited with 14 hours from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties  as the conference was preceded by four specialized workshops and lectures. The first dealt with telescopic surgery methods where 14 doctors were thoroughly trained on this type of surgery while the second trained the participants in the latest findings in the field of urology.

The third workshop trained participating doctors in ENT, delving into methods of performing a biopsy on the trachea and introducing an emergency breathing tube efficiently. The fourth workshop was attended by 19 surgeons who were trained in neurosurgery and how to introduce a tube to the brain to monitor the pressure in the brain and to examine an unconscious patient.