• General
• Oct. 11, 2023

ELSA2023, ISTANBUL Congress completed in a great success.

The 16th Asia Pacific Congress of Endoscopic Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia took place in Istanbul on 4th to 8th of October 2023 and was completed in great success.

The congress commenced with courses on Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery & Anastomosis, Laparoscopic Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery, and the Endoscopic POEM course, all held at the Medtronic Innovation Center in Istanbul. Additionally, the Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery course took place at Acibadem CASE, Advanced Endoscopic Surgery Training Center. Pre-Congress courses were successfully completed, and a total of 91 participants received certifications.

The congress began on 5th October at 8.30 with live surgeries on Bariatric surgery, including sleeve procedures performed at Beykent University Hospital. Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy and Laparoscopic Roux-n-Y gastric Bypass were carried out at the same time with a live broadcast from two different operating rooms, which were both completed in great success. Another live surgery was performed at Acibadem Maslak Hospital, and a patient with rectal cancer underwent TME using Da Vinci Xi. A Presidental Lecture on Endoluminal Surgery was delivered by Prof Philip Chiu.

A Board of Governors (BOG)  Meeting was held and  completed smoothly.

Oral and video presentations were completed at 8 different presentation rooms.

After the completion of all sessions, opening ceremony was started with the Opening speech of Prof Mahir OZMEN as Congress President at Lutfi Kırdar Auditorium, and ELSA Life Time Achievement Awards were presented to Prof Abdullah Aldohayan(Saudi Arabia), Prof Metin Ertem(Turkiye), Prof Peter GOH (Singapore), Prof Michael LI(Hong Kong), Prof Selcuk Mercan(Turkiye), Prof Yoshiharu Sakai(Japan), Prof Barlian Sutedja(Indonesia), and Prof K Vasudeavan Vimal(Malaysia).

The program was very intense with conferences, panels, and live surgeries on day 2. During the live surgery session, two hernia cases (inguinal and incisional) were operated on at Medipol Mega Hospital, and an Endoluminal Live Surgery was carried out from Kosuyolu Hospital at same time.

The Annual General Assembly took place on the 2nd day, and the new executive board was selected as: Professor M Mahir OZMEN(President), Professor Imam Sofii (Vice-President), Professor Davide Lomanto (General Secretary), Professor Kazanuri KASAMA (Treasurer).

As the new president, Professor Mahir OZMEN also addressed his presidental conference speech on ‘Robots in cancer Surgery: what evidence say?’ on the second day. Laparoscopic Suturing Course, VAAFT-EPSiT Course and TEO Course also took place during the second day. Again, oral and video presentations were carried out in 8 different rooms.

The third and final day of the Congress also began with great enthusiasm and a strong turnout to witness live surgeries on laparoscopic adrenalectomy and TOETVA performed at Istanbul University. There were panel sessions and also a presidental lecture which was delivered by EAES President, Professor George HANNA titled ‘Maintaining surgical quality in training and clinical trials’.

During the closing ceremony, Professor Mahir OZMEN, as the new president, delivered the closing speech and announced the award winners with the new board members. ELSA Society Flag was also delivered to Indonesia for ELSA 2024 Congress in BALI.

Best presentation awards were given to the studies listed below:

Best Oral Presentation Awards :

1.‘‘Short-and long-term outcomes of robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy’’

Shigeru Tsunoda, Tatsuto Nishigori, Shintaro Okumura, Shigeo Hisamori, Takashi Sakamoto, Tomoki Morimoto, Hiromitsu Kinoshita, Keiko Kasahara, Shingo Yamasaki, Kazutaka Obama

 

1.‘‘Holography guided laparoscopic and robotic-assisted endoscopic surgery boosted spatial perception using extended reality (VR/AR/MR) in the metaverse’’

Maki Suhimoto, Takuya Sueyoshi

 

1.‘‘Endoluminal surgery; our colorectal ESD case series’’
Fevzi Cengiz, Feyyaz Gungor, Huseyin Tas, Mehmet Hacıyanlı

 

Best Video Presentation Awards:

1.‘‘Novel procedure in metabolic surgery: robotic SADS proximal approach’’

Emre GUNDOGDU, M. Mahir OZMEN

 

1. ‘‘A surgical video of laparoscopic combine resection of HCC with diaphragmatic invasion

Ya-Li Liu, Kuo Hsin Chen

 

ELSA2023, Istanbul Congress By Numbers

Around 1100 participants from 42 different countries and 173 speakers from 32 different countries attended the congress. Turkiye was the leading country with 417 participants. During the congress courses, panels and conferences, a total of 364 speeches were delivered by distinquished speakers.

Scientific content of the program included 7 Courses, 8 Live Surgeries, 3 Presidential Lectures (ELSA, SAGES, EAES), 1 Joint Panel (IFSES, SAGES, EAES, ELSA), 2 Luncheon Symposium, 16 Conferences, 18 Panel Sessions, 10 Video Panel Sessions, 1 Best-paper Selection Session, 1 Best Video-Selection Session, 15 Presentation Sessions, and e-Poster sessions with 234 paper presentations.

 

Acknowledgements

      As the president of the Congress and President of ELSA Society on behalf of the Executive Board, I would like to thank especially my team first: Congress secretary Professor Aras Emre CANDA, Congress scientific secretaries Assoc Prof Emre GUNDOGDU, Assoc Prof M Kadri COLAKOGLU, Assoc Prof Ahmet RENCUZOGULLARI for their tireless efforts to make the congress a perfect scientific festival.

      I would also like to thank all speakers for joining us, without whom a  top quality congress would not have taken place. Special thanks goes to the Board of Governors and the ICC of ELSA for their support at every stage of the preparation.

      I have to mention Dr Sajid MALIK, Dr Gaffor MUBARAK and Dr Cem Emir GULDOGAN’s name as they were the supporters of the congress and the society for apps, social media including Facebook, X, Instagram, and etc. Dr Sajid  MALIK made everything possible on the ELSAapp. Thank you foxes for the amazing work.

      Special thanks to the previous president Prof Philip Chiu and the previous vice-president Professor Rolf Hartung for making ELSA Society great.

      Last but not least,  one of the biggest thank goes to my wife Assoc Prof Füsun OZMEN for her countless support during my never-ending scientific journey.

We, as ELSA society, are stronger than ever and eagerly looking for the future.

Yours sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Organizing Committee of ELSA2023 and ELSA Executive Board

 

Professor M Mahir OZMEN MD MS FACS FRCS FASMBS

President, ELSA Society