Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences holds conference on Perioperative Management of Congenital Heart Disease

The conference aimed at training key healthcare personnel with an aim to provide highest pre-operative care for children with heart disease

A conference on Perioperative Management of Congenital Heart Disease was recently held at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.

The conference which saw participation at the international level is a joint collaboration between Amrita Hospital, Children’s Heart Link (an international NGO to develop solutions for challenges in Child Heart Disease management) and the Hridayam scheme of the government. Close to 300 delegates that included surgeons, anaesthesiologists, paediatric cardiologists and nurses attended the conference.

The conference aimed at training key healthcare personnel with an aim to provide highest pre-operative care for children with heart disease. The first day of the programme consisted of separate workshops for ICU specialists, nurses and paediatricians. The ECMO workshop for ICU specialists was conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the hospital for Sick Kids Toronto, Canada which is one of the world’s leading paediatric heart programmes. The hands-on ECMO workshop was the first of its kind in the country.

The workshop for nurses was a practical nursing skill’s workshop that was led by international nursing leaders. About 120 nurses from all over India and neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Bangladesh attended this session.

The third workshop session was a teaching programme on pre-operative stabilisation of babies with congenital heart disease and this dealt with issues on how to improve the condition of children prior to heart surgery. This part of the programme was for the paediatricians in the state of Kerala who are an integral part of the Hridyam programme of the Kerala Government.