ABC Surgery being developed

In May 2018, an international group of plastic, general and paediatric surgeons convened in Swansea to help create a new training module for the Interburns Advanced Burn Care programme, focussing on burn surgeons in resource-poor settings. The surgeons brought a wealth of experience from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Palestinian Territories, the UK and North America. The workshop was hosted by our partners the Centre for Global Burn Injury Policy and Research.

The Module will complete the trilogy of ABC modules on Rehabilitation, Nursing and Surgery that support core members of the burn care team (therapists, nurses and surgeons). It will cover all key aspects of surgical care from acute and emergency stages in the first 24 hours through to reconstructive surgery months or even year post-injury.

Topics will include excision and skin grafting, escharotomy/fasciotomy, palliative care, infection control, anaesthesia and analgesia, audit and research, leadership and change management, nutrition, acute and delayed reconstructive surgery, and many others.

All ABC Modules are 5 day highly practical training programmes with a focus on interactive sessions and developing real world skills and decision-making abilities that can be put into practice despite the challenging environment and limited resources many surgeons treating burns face around the world.

Interburns is planning to deliver ABC Surgery twice, once each in South Asia and Africa in the next 2 years. The first ABC Surgery will take place in Nepal in November 2018, at the Interburns Training Centre at Kirtipur Hospital, with international participants from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria and the Palestinian Territories. A further ABC Surgery will take place in early 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Interburns would like to thank our colleagues for contributing to this important international meeting and the UK Department for International Development for funding this workshop as part of a comprehensive international project to improve global burn care.