Co-chair Andrew Dias with best poster winner Nyamateja Kaare.
Lisa O’Byrne, ST5 Otolaryngology, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
The annual Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium, first held in 1992, has evolved to include all surgical specialties as well as many allied disciplines. This year marks the 19th iteration of the head and neck session, founded by Professor John Fenton in 2005.
In keeping with the spirit of interdisciplinary learning promoted by the conference, the session always welcomes delegates from ORL-HNS, OMFS, PRAS and general surgery. This year was no different, with the highest number of abstracts since its inception received from all specialties that enter the territory of the head and neck.
Both the poster and oral presentation section were chaired by Prof Fenton joined by co-chair Mr Andrew Dias of South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork. The standard of all posters and presentations was excellent with a huge variety of topics presented. ORL- HNS contributions included emergency management of subglottic lesions, the endoscope in the management of cholesteatoma, nasopharyngitis and PTH interpretation post-parathyroidectomy, to name but a few.
However, there can only be one winner! The award for best poster went to Nyamateja Kaare, a final-year medical student from the University of Limerick, with her poster, ‘Seven degrees of separation in otitis externa’. This study from the local ORL-HNS academic department examined the suggestion that otitis externa is primarily a dermatological condition. It proposed a novel classification system for all stages of the condition, both inflammatory and infective, acute and chronic, with the inclusion of complications.
The prize for best oral presentation was won by Kasie O’Reilly from the PRAS department at Beaumont University Hospital, Dublin, with her study, ‘Training surgeons in real-time complex microvascular reconstructive techniques: do patient outcomes differ in the hand of the novice versus the master?’. Her talk outlined the results from an admirably large multicentre database which examined different outcomes when comparing trainees with experienced microvascular surgeons.
The three-day symposium included state-of-the-art lectures, masterclasses and presentations in a relaxed environment across a vast spectrum of surgical practice. The interdisciplinary head and neck session was in keeping with this and offered a fantastic opportunity for learning as well as collaboration.
The next meeting is expected to take place in early March 2025 (to be confirmed).
