The NOTES-WIDER presents in the 10th edition new techniques in gastrointestinal surgery

The international course NOTES-Wider Barcelona is in better shape than ever. This year the course celebrated the 10^th edition, with more than a hundred professionals who came to Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Campus to receive training and participate in discussion forums about the latest techniques in the field of transluminal endoscopic surgery. The course took place on 21^st and 2nf of November and was again managed by Dr. Josep Ramon Armengol-Miro, Dr. Manuel Armengol, Dr. Antonio J. Torres and Dr. Joan Dot, within the project of the World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research (WIDER Barcelona), located at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and funded by Obra Social La Caixa, headed by Dr. Armengol-Miro.

As a novelty this year the more highlighted activities were conferences about techniques and technologies of gastrointestinal tumor resection, bile ducts and pancreas. There were also discussed new techniques of endoluminal suture, treatment for gastroesophageal reflux, non-invasive methodologies, therapeutical applications of endocopy in bilodigestive and pancreatic pathologies.

Apart from the presentations, as done each year, the congress also presented live transmissions and discussions from the Laboratory Animal Service of Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research. With the approval of the Ethic Committee of Animal Experimentation (known as CEEA in Catalan) at VHIR, the experts performed practical demonstrations of anesthetic techniques, intubation, catheterization, ways of approach, anastomosis, transgastric or transvaginal cholecystectomy, pancreatectomy, appendectomy and access wound closure techniques, among others. There were also demonstrations from the operating rooms of the Digestive Endoscopy Service as the endoscopic treatment of achalasia, tumor resection with endoluminal endoscopic closure techniques and other pathologies discussed during the conference.

The course was addressed to gastroenterologists, clinical endoscopists and surgeons with interest in the benefits of the transluminal endoscopic surgery through natural orifices (known as CETON in Catalan) and interventional therapeutic techniques related to them (TETON in Catalan).

In the framework of the course, a scientific dinner was held with the presence of two international speakers and the presidency of the Health advisor, Toni Comín. The tenth edition of the course is one of the actions of WIDER-BCN, which is a pioneering project in endoscopic surgery funded by Obra Social La Caixa.