Global surgeries footage is beamed to Scots conference

SOME of the world's top surgeons yesterday demonstrated the latest advances in keyhole surgery in a series of live operations to experts at a conference in Scotland – without leaving their hospital theatres.

State-of-the-art audiovisual technology was used to broadcast high-definition images of the advanced surgical procedures in real time to a conference in Dundee attended by 300 international surgeons.

Yesterday, on the first day of the three-day international laparoscopic surgery conference, ten advanced operations were beamed to Dundee from surgical theatres in Brussels, Naples, Turin, Pittsburgh, and as far afield as Coimbatore in India.

In Dundee's West Park Conference Centre, a panel of experts and moderators co-ordinated the debate between the delegates at the conference and the operating surgeons, and provided a commentary on the live surgery being shown simultaneously on three high-definition screens.

Francesco Polignano, the conference organiser and leading laparoscopic surgeon at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, said:

"The work going on at Ninewells is contributing to training surgeons across Europe, as we constantly have international delegates coming to view the work that we do or attending our courses."