26 May 2016

ACPGBI President, Professor RJC Steele, discusses the controversies in coloproctology symposium at the ASGBI congress in Belfast earlier this month.

At the recent ASGBI meeting in Belfast, ACPGBI held a symposium on controversies in coloproctology identified by the recent Delphi exercise. The first speaker was Charles Maxwell-Armstrong from Nottingham who addressed the management of acute diverticulitis, and highlighted particularly the debate around antibiotic use in the treatment of acute diverticulitis and the role of laparoscopic lavage. He was followed by Nader Francis from Yeovil who discussed perineal reconstruction following APER, and illustrated nicely how the technique of extended levator dissection had introduced a dilemma around how best to close the resulting defect. Nicola Fearnhead from Cambridge then tackled the complex issue of surgical strategy in fistulating perianal Crohn’s Disease, and emphasised the importance of early control of sepsis and the central role of the seton. Finally, Neil Smart from Exeter dealt with the prevention and treatment of parastoma hernias taking the audience through the various options that are currently available. It was clear from this symposium that all four topics raise important questions around optimal surgical management, and it was equally clear from the size of the audience and the questions from the floor that discussion of the issues was greatly appreciated. All the talks were of the highest standard and I felt extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to chair the session. This symposium arose from an agreement between ASGBI and ACPGBI to hold reciprocal events at each other’s scientific meetings, and I believe it was an auspicious start to ongoing, fruitful collaborations between our two associations.

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