July 9, 2010
School of Medicine, Kochi
 

The 23rd Annual Conference of Kerala Plastic Surgeons Association (KPSA) was conducted in Trivandrum during April 24-25.
 

Amrita’s Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery were represented by doctors invited as guest speakers as well as those presenting their research work.
 

Dr. Subramania Iyer, HoD, Department of Reconstructive Surgery, delivered an invited lecture on skull base surgery that is used to treat cancers of the skull base.
 

“After skull base surgery, there is a possibility of leakage of cerebrospinal fluid that can lead to meningitis (or inflammation of meninges, the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord),” explained Dr. Iyer. “In order to prevent this, techniques like microsurgery are employed.”
 

Dr. Mohit Sharma, Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery, delivered an invited talk on recent advances in burn care, based on his learnings in the UK.
 

“I talked about my experiences in a modern burn care unit, where we monitored critically ill burns patients with the help of the software Mitavision,” stated Dr. Sharma. “I also spoke about the latest techniques for burn depth assessment and skin banking and their scope in India.”
 

Dr. Sundeep Vijayaraghavan, Associate Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery, delivered an invited talk titled Brachial Plexus Injury Repair using Posterior Approach for Spinal Accessory Nerve to Suprascapular Nerve Cross-over.
 

The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that conducts signals from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm and hand. Brachial plexus injuries, or lesions, are caused by damage to these nerves housed in the spinal canal of the vertebral column (or spine).
 

“The brachial plexus injury repair is traditionally done by the anterior approach through the neck,” explained Dr. Sundeep. “In this new method of posterior approach, we are able to do distal neurotisation, whereby earlier and better results are obtained.”
 

Amrita doctors also presented research papers, winning accolades for the same.
 

Dr. Jimmy Mathew, Associate Professor, Department of Reconstructive Surgery, received the best consultant paper award for his paper titled Modified VY Advancement Flap for Trochantric Pressure Sore.
 

A new technique of reconstructive surgery conducted for the repair of pressure sores on femur using flap (soft tissue transferred from one site of the body to another), the novel way of closure of gluteal defects was presented in the paper.
 

“If we rotate the ordinary VY advancement flap through 45-90 degrees medial, there are a lot of advantages,” explained Dr. Jimmy. “This provides an easier way to see the muscle responsible for the flap and the blood vessel supplying to it.”
 

Dr. Sachin Chavre, Fellow, Department of Reconstructive Surgery, bagged the best postgraduate paper award for his paper on a new technique of harvesting the radial forearm skin.
 

“When a radial forearm free flap is harvested with the traditional method, a large ugly looking scar results on the forearm,” explained Dr. Sachin. “This can be avoided with the shape modified method, where we harvest the same flap which can be closed primarily, but not compromising on the required flap.”
 

“We analyzed thirty patients and found that the modified method clinically healed without any complications and had a higher satisfaction ratio than the traditional method.”
 

The conference was inaugurated by the former president of the Association of Plastic Surgeons in India, Sam C. Bose. Eminent plastic surgeons from across the country participated.