The 4th International Uniportal VATS Course was held successfully in Campus Charité Mitte, Berlin, from 2nd to 4th March 2017. The three-day Course was jointly organized by the University Hospital Charité in Berlin, Germany, the University Hospital in Coruña, Spain and the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tonji University Shanghai, China. With the theme “Uniportal VATS: Challenges Ahead”, the course is composed of Uniportal VATS lecture series by renowned experts, live surgery cases and Wetlab practice.
Day 1 - keynote speeches on challenges of Uniportal VATS
On the first day, the course started to be held with a focus on ‘the challenges’. History and development of uniportal VATS, concerns about operative risks, technical challenges, and technical experiences of uniportal VATS were discussed and debated by renowned experts and surgeons in thoracic surgery from around the world (Figure 1-4). In the first session, the lectures delivered by Prof Jens C. Rücker, Prof Rodney Landreneau, Prof Calvin Ng and Prof Gaetano Rocco, just opened the door to the world of uniportal VATS (Figure 2).
Figure 1 Attendees at the conference room
Figure 2 Speakers. A. Prof Jens C. Rückert; B. Prof Rodney Landreneau; C. Prof Calvin Ng; D. Prof Gaetano Rocco
Figure 3 Speakers. A. Prof Diego Gonzalez-Riva; B. Prof Ali Zamir Khan; C. Prof Mahmoud Ismail; D. Prof Dmitrii Sekhniaidze; E. Prof Vadim Pischik; F. Prof Harun Badakhshi
Figure 4 Speakers. A. Prof Marco Scarci; B. Prof Stefano Margaritora; C. Prof Stefanie Veit; D. Prof Cesar Bonome; E. Prof María Delgado Roel
During the discussion sessions (Figure 5), attendees had the opportunity to ask the speakers questions and share comments. Impressively, the two debated topics entitled “why (not) to change from Multiportal to Uniportal VATS” and “why (not) to change to non-intubated awake VATS”, had surely sparked the most debate among speakers and attendees.
Figure 5 Discussion sessions
Launch of a new book from AME Publishing Company
The new book “This is Life: The Journey of Uniportal VATS”, edited by Dr Diego Gonzalez-Rivas, Dr Gening Jiang and Dr Yuming Zhu, was first launched at the Course (Figure 6). There was also a video playing on the screen for introducing the new book to attendees. Meanwhile, at the booth of AME Publishing Company Dr Diego Gonzalez-Rivas signed the copies of the new book for readers following the event (Figure 7,8).
Figure 6 The cover of This is Life: The Journey of Uniportal VATS
Figure 7 The booth of AME Publishing Company preparing for the launch of the new book
Figure 8 Dr Diego Gonzalez-Rivas signing for readers (right) and Dr Mahmoud Ismail (left)
Day 2 –Sharing and watching videos of live surgery
After the extensive lecture series on the first day of the Course, the second day was devoted to live surgery cases of uniportal VATS major pulmonary resections. As the directors of the Course, Dr Diego Gonzalez Rivas and Dr Mahmoud Ismail performed the day’s operations. All attendees observed the live surgeries and asked questions while the specialist moderators explained every step (Figure 9).
Figure 9 Moderator is speaking during the live videos of operation
Day 3 – WETLAB providing practice and training, trainees battling to be the best
After an introduction to the Wetlab training, participants were divided into different groups for surgeries training such as uniportal VATS lobectomies and segmentectomies in animal models (Figure 10). Two outstanding trainees were finally selected and awarded with the new book entitled “This Is Life: The Journey of Uniportal VATS” edited by Dr Diego Gonzalez-Rivas (Figure 11).
Figure 10 Wetlab participants
Figure 11 Dr Jens C. Rückert (2nd right), Dr Mahmoud Ismail (3rd right), the two winners (2nd left and 4th right) and Ms Xiaoyue Xu (1st right)
Signing of the agreement of cooperation between AME Publishing Company and University Hospital Charité in Berlin, Germany
Ms Xiaoyue Xu, Managing Editor from AME Publishing Company and Dr Jens C. Rückert, Director of Thoracic Surgery, University Hospital Charité in Berlin, Germany, signed the “AME Academic Cooperation Group Agreement” aiming to improve the academic and clinical communication and cooperation between China and Europe (Figure 12). As the key contributor in making this cooperation, Dr Mahmoud Ismail believes that the project will help facilitate healthcare cooperation and academic exchange in the field of thoracic surgery between University Hospital Charité in Berlin and AME Publishing Company (Figure 13).
Figure 12 AME Ppublishing Ccompany representative Ms Xiaoyue Xu and Director of Thoracic Surgery, University Hospital Charité in Berlin, Germany, signed an agreement of cooperation
Figure 13 Dr Jens C. Rückert (left) and Dr Mahmoud Ismail (right)
Views from outside conference room (Figure 17,18)
At coffee break and lunchtime, some attendees stopped by the booth of AME Publishing Company, our editors were glad to introduce the latest updates of AME journals, invite experts for interviews, and give certifications to some of editorial board members of AME journals as well as little gifts as souvenirs (Figure 14-16).
Figure 14 The new book from AME Publishing Company attracting the attention of participants
Figure 15 Interviews with some of editorial board members of AME journals. A. Prof Marcin Zielinski; B. A photo with Prof Joshua R. Sonett after an interview with Prof Sonett from New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Figure 16 Coming across old friends in front of the booth of AME publishing company
Figure 17 Academic exchanges among doctors participating in the Course
Figure 18 Exhibitor showing the latest surgical instruments outside the meeting room
The 4th International Uniportal VATS Course - Live Surgery and Wetlab was finished smoothly. Along with more and more thoracic surgeons interested in uniportal VATS growing up at the platform, young surgeons will be following the trail led by the pioneers, and bring benefit to even more patients. What would you like to see next year, what's new in uniportal VATS surgery, and what new books will AME publishing company prepare for participants in the next year’s Course, so let’s look forward the Course to be held in Berlin, 2018.