Report from ‘ESCP 2021 Virtual’: the 16th Scientific and Annual Conference of the European Society of Coloproctology, 22–24 September 2021

摘要

Following the unprecedented nature of the European Society of Coloproctology’s (ESCP’s) Virtually Vilnius in 2020 (the first completely online annual conference for the ESCP), the ESCP executive had hoped for better times. With news of vaccines and Covid infection rates reducing across Europe, there was considerable hope that 2021 would bring a much sought, and renewed, opportunity for a face-to-face congress. However, despite earlier optimism, a resurgence of Covid variant infections across Europe through mid-2021 forced the Executive to again make the urgent and difficult decision to opt to broadcast our annual congress virtually, cancelling detailed plans for the face-to-face component in Barcelona in September. Considerable human effort, across all the Society’s committees, was mobilized to deliver ESCP 2021 Virtual, to be broadcast in the form of a 3-day virtual event. The executive was delighted with the resulting engagement, with more than 1400 participants from 80 countries attending between 22 and 24 September. Since then, the online recordings of the sessions have been viewed more than 12,000 times. The conference programme was an expert balance of international speakers and chairs, including several young ESCP members, and allowed open interaction and discussion of cases. The congress was opened by the ESCP President, E. Xynos (Greece), who welcomed the virtual attendees and reported on the activities and initiatives of the Society, delivery of which continued despite the challenges caused by the pandemic. E. Angenete (Sweden) was the first speaker on the virtual stage, giving a keynote lecture on the epidemiology of colorectal cancer (CRC). She highlighted the increasing incidence and severity of presentation of CRC among young adults but also that they have a higher disease-free survival if treated adequately and in a timely manner. She linked her presentation to the challenge of the United Nation’s ‘sustainable development goals’ to reduce by a third the premature mortality associated with noncommunicable diseases by 2030. She advocated that we address this through better CRC care, screening implementation programmes and research. Notably, the sustainability agenda in surgery has been a major online focus for the ESCP this year. The highly successful session on guidelines was moderated by J. Warusavitarne (UK). S. Breukink (Netherlands) introduced the ESCP guidelines for haemorrhoidal disease [1], with 34 recommendations covering six areas (evaluation of symptoms, diagnosis and classification, basic treatment, outpatient procedures, surgical interventions, special situations and other surgical techniques). E. Angenete presented the diverticulitis guidelines [2]: indications for emergency surgery, surgical approach, primary anastomosis and other important aspects were discussed. Y. Maeda (UK) reported on the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of faecal incontinence, as a collaboration between United European Gastroenterology, the ESCP, the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and the European Society for Primary Care Gastroenterology, emphasizing the importance of involving patients in shared decision-making throughout the treatment of faecal incontinence. Complex case discussions were also included in this session. M. Pera (Spain) introduced the ‘Surviving CRC’ session. C. Molenaar (Netherlands) stressed that most European countries lack a uniform definition of interval times (time periods since the diagnosis, the correct staging and the multidisciplinary final decision) for CRC pathways, and that recommendations on treatment intervals are often conflicting. K. Emmertsen (Denmark) discussed long-term morbidity after CRC surgery, arguing that dedicated screening and treatment programmes can identify several patients with postsurgical sequelae (20%–30% of patients at her centre). S. Ng (Hong Kong, China), co-chair of the Global Reach Committee, opened the ‘Building and developing the globa