upcoming minimally invasive thoracoscopy course for my Spanish speaking readers at the Clinica Alemana in Santiago, Chile
Cirugia de Torax won’t be there this year – but Clinica Alemana, one of the highest ranked hospitals in Latin America is holding another course on Minimally invasive thoracic surgery this October.
The facility, which is in Santiago, Chile is also home to Dr. Raimundo Santolaya, who was one of our first interviews here at Cirugia de Torax.
Featured speakers include Dr. Miguel Congregado (Seville, Spain), Dr. Pablo Moreno de Santa Barajas (Vigo, Spain), Dr. David Smith (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Dr. Patricio Varela of the University of Chile.
Course content is sponsored by the Chilean Society of Respiratory Diseases, The Chilean Society of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the Faculty of Medicine at Clinica Alemana – University of Desarrollo.
Interested surgeons should contact the clinic at this address: dmedico@alemana.cl or cursosclinicos1@alemana.cl or enroll on-line at www.alemana.cl
The event is jointly sponsored by M. Kaplan, Johnson & Johnson, IMP, Solumed and Stryker.
an interview with thoracic and tranplant surgeon, Dr. Raimundo Santolaya Cohen of Santiago, Chile
Dr. Raimundo Santolaya, Thoracic and Transplant Surgeon
After listening to Dr. Raimundo Santolaya Cohen at the National Conference, where he discussed the diagnosis and management of Pneumothoraces, I immediately contacted him following the lecture to arrange an interview. I was delighted to be able to spend several hours in the charismatic and elegant Chilean surgeon’s company while we talked about thoracic surgery, and the state of lung transplant in Chile.
While he reports that while lung transplant programs are fairly small in Chile (in comparison to American institutions) he performs several transplants every year.
In addition to his interest in pulmonary transplant, he is also keenly interested in minimally invasive surgery, including uni-port surgery. In fact, he is currently arranging for Dr. Diego Gonzalez, the Spanish thoracic surgeon to come to Chile in October to teach uni-port lobectomy.
Like most thoracic surgeons, he performs a wide range of thoracic procedures including lung surgeries, and mediastinal masses.
We also discussed the incidence of Hidatidosis/ hydatidosis, (echinococcus granulosus) which is endemic in Chile. Hidatidosis is an infection caused by a parasite transmitted by animals (commonly dogs), and is more commonly known as a tapeworm. Infection with this organism can affect multiple organs, but frequently affects the liver and the lungs, called hepatopulmonary hydatidosis. Infection is marked by the development of hydatid cysts which are filled with tapeworm larvae. In the lungs, these cysts can become quite large.
Dr. Raimundo Santolaya completed his thoracic surgery fellowship at the Universidad de Chile before traveling to Madrid, Spain to study lung transplant for an additional year.
continued coverage of the2012 (Mexican) National Conference in Cancun, Mexico with discussions by Dr. Rafael Andrade, Dr. Raimundo Santolaya and Dr. Enrique Guzman de Alba.
LXXI Congreso Nacional de Neumologia y Cirugia de Torax
Cancun, Mexico
Yesterday was such a flurry of activity – I didn’t get a chance to post Wednesday’s Conference highlights until now.
After sitting thru some lackluster presentations for most of Tuesday, today was definitely the best day of the conference so far; as the topics become more and more thoracic surgery related (versus Asthma, and other strictly pulmonary medicine topics). There were so many enjoyable and informative lectures today that is was hard to choose, even after deciding to pick more than one – I feel like apologizing to all the other great speakers – but I’ve narrowed it down to a trifecta of great speakers, with Dr. Raimundo Santolaya, Dr. Rafael Andrade, and Dr. Enrique Guzman de Alba.
Dr. Ramundi Santolaya, MD a Chilean thoracic surgeon gave a thoroughly enjoyable overview of the diagnosis and management of pneumothoraces. Whether it was due to innate charisma, a lively discussion and multi-media presentation on one of my favorite topics, or due to that fact that with his clear, unaccented Spanish – I didn’t miss a word – he was a standout star of the day – so much so that I chased him down later for a full interview.
Dr. Raimundo Santolaya, of Santiago, Chile discusses 'Actualidades en el manejo del neumotorax'
Dr. Rafael Andrade, from the University of Minnesota was also very informative, yet entertaining during his talk on the use of ultrasound for mediastinal evaluation (cancer staging). He explained that while mediastinoscopy remains the gold standard for staging lung cancer, that the new(er) ultrasound techniques including endobronchial (EBUS) and endoesophageal (EUS) ultrasound allow for tissue sampling (and biopsy) of lymph nodes that are normally inaccessible during mediastinoscopy including many of the more distal stations. These techniques do not replace mediastinoscopy, or mediastinotomy (Chamberlain) but offer complimentary information to assist in the staging of cancers to help determine the extent of disease when PET results may be inconclusive, or appear to show more extensive disease.
I had just finished reading some of his recent papers for another article I was working on, so it was both a surprise and a pleasure to see him and speak with him, in person. He sure didn’t seem to mind my questions (despite my chronically impaired Spanish.)
Dr. Rafael Andrade takes the time to speak with Cirugiadetorax.org
Of course, his English is impeccable but when in Rome, etc. so I did my best. Luckily for me, and all the readers here at Cirugia de Torax – my understanding of ‘surgical Spanish’ tends to be spot – on, particularly when there are overhead slides to assist with translation.
Dr. Rafael Andrade, University of Minnesota presents, 'Valor del ultrasonido toracico en las enfermedades pleurales
Dr. Enrique Guzman de Alba, a cardiothoracic surgeon gave two lectures, more of a part I and a part II on the current literature regarding the surgical treatment of lung cancers by staging as well as a review of the literature surrounding clinical outcomes comparing lobectomy versus segmentectomy (aka wedge resections.) As he explained, lobectomy remains the gold standard for any patient who is able to tolerate surgery, (including patients that are believed to be marginal candidates and would otherwise be relegated to wedge resection.) He reports that despite common beliefs regarding segmentectomies as ‘lung -sparing’ for patients with marginal baseline respiratory (or other functional) status – there has been no data to demonstrate that these patients perform better/ or better tolerate a wedge resection versus the more complete lobectomy. Therefore, given the increased incidence of cancer reoccurrence with segmentectomies – he advocates for the larger, but more effective lobectomy.
Dr. Enrique Guzman de Alba, cardiothoracic surgeon at INER, Mexico City, Mexico giving one of several presentations
There was also some interesting discussion on managing malignant pleural effusions and limitations of PleurX catheter use in Mexico due to prohibitive costs for many patients.
Thoracic Surgery 