The Arizona Chapter of the American College of Surgeons held their annual meeting in Tucson on Nov.1-2, 2008 at the Omni Resort. During the meeting, invited speakers, residents and medical students presented topics and papers that included general surgery and trauma subjects.

Guest speakers included David Richardson, MD, Stanley Dudrick, MD, Peter Rhee, MD (New Chairman of the Trauma Dept. at the U of A, Samir Fakhry, MD, Nick Morrison, MD, Douglas B. Evans, MD and Rainer Gruessner, MD (Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the U of A). Topics included: “How the ACS is adapting, changing and planning for the future (Richardson); Recent advances in transplant and hepatobiliary surgery (Gruessner); Military surgery (Rhee); Management of complex intestinal fistulas, Research experiences in the development of TPN (Dudrick); Vein dirorders (Morrison); Future of trauma care and trauma surgeons, Blunt small bowel injury (Fakhry) and Retirement – When & How (Zollininger).

The winning residents for general surgery topics were as follows:

1. Higa: Type II endoleaks after endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. ($300)
2. Bollmann: The effects of hand movement training. ($300)
3. Lucas: Expanding indications for angioplasty and stenting of leg arteries. ($200)
4. Hamilton: Exploitation of visio-motor conflicts to accelerate the accumulation of laparoscopic skills in general surgery residents. ($200)

The winning residents for trauma papers (not in winning order) were as follows:
1. Hibbard: Empiric, Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Therapy with an Aggressive De-escalation Strategy Does Not Induce Gram-Negative Pathogen Resistance in Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
2. Ballesteros: Gracilis Free flap for soft tissue coverage of upper and lower extremity trauma
3. Albrecht: Recurrence or Delayed Onset of Hematologic Abnormalities in Rattlesnake Bite Victims Treated with Antivenom (CroFab)
4. Justiniano: Colon discontinuity after damage control laparotomy: Can we safely perform a delayed anastomosis?

Medical students from the University of Arizona, under the direction of Marlys Witte, MD also presented several papers on student research at the U of A. Topics included: Infrainguinal atherectomy; Functional disruption of the lymphatic vasculature inhibits metastatic dissemination of a murine melanoma; Future directions of orthopedic surgery, Health related quality of life in VA patients with intestinal stomas and Constructing a reproducible and inexpensive model for training surgeons on video assisted pulmonary lobectomies.

Next year’s meeting will be held in Scottsdale (site to be determined) in conjunction with AZTrACC (state trauma consortium) meeting on Nov. 4-6. The meeting of the AzACS will begin the afternoon of Nov. 6 and continue through Nov. 7. By combining the meeting, a variety of national speakers will be available to both meetings. Resident and medical student presentations will be encouraged at both meetings. The meetings will have separate registrations, therefore, separate tuition fees. The price of the meetings will be included in future mailings and e-mails.

The meeting at the Omni cost approximately $28,000 with costs of set by registration and vendor fees of about $16,000, leaving a deficit of -$12,000. However, there continues to be ample revenues from dues to offset the loss. (Note: My personal thanks to all members of the AzACS who continue to contribute yearly dues to the Chapter.)

Governor’s Report: (Mike Probstfeld, MD)

Main issues:
1. Liability issues remains # 1
2. Competence, Safety, Quality are keys
3. Effective communication

The new building in Washington DC is under construction. Future meetings will be held in San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC with rotation, annually.

Cancer committee:
Richard Gray, MD at the Mayo Clinic has been appointed as the Arizona State Chair of the Commission on Cancer. Arizona has 6 level I, CoC approved cancer programs.

Goals:
1. Promote communications, collaboration, infrastructure, training and funding for cancer researchers.
2. Improve accessibility, analysis and evaluation of cancer data. Promote the use of tissue banking in cancer research
3. Promote participation in cancer clinical trials in Arizona, Specifically amoun underserved populations.

Hope to see you at next year’s meeting.

Dennis E. Weiland, MD

Sec/Treas