The three-day conference was organised to provide a knowledge sharing platform for Bariatric surgeons, Clinicians, Anaesthesiologists, Endocrinologists, Psychiatrists, Dieticians, and Nurses from around the globe to highlight the latest advancements and updates in the field of bariatrics.
The prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled from 1975 to 2018 and the World Health Organisation has declared it as a metabolic disease. Once, only associated with the high-income, countries it is now prominently prevalent in the middle and low-income countries as well. Childhood obesity has also risen to be a serious public health challenge in the 21st century. Obese children are more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age. With obesity shaping up to be a major health care problem, diet, physical activities and lifestyle changes alone are not able to help reduce obesity and related health issues. In fact, more than 90% of morbidly obese people fail to achieve adequate weight loss. For such failed scenarios and for people with life threatening diseases, bariatric surgery is the only current treatment that can help them achieve major and durable weight loss.
Bariatric surgery is gaining immense popularity around the world and more so in India due to its enhanced success rate. Erratic eating culture and sedentary life style coupled with poor genetic make-up are reversed through bariatric surgery, leading to significant weight loss and resolution comorbidities in individuals.
OSSI, a not for profit body of bariatric surgeons in India, brings together all the expertise of bariatric surgeons of the country and other clinical experts within its ambit for the cause of treating morbidly obese patients. OSSI partnered with Apollo Hospitals and conducted 14 live surgical demonstrations ranging from straightforward cases to complex surgeries on super obese including revision surgeries, diabetic surgeries. For the first time, all the modes of technique including Laparoscopy, Single Incision, Robotic and Endoluminal surgeries were performed under one roof. The delegates were also given an opportunity to select from an array of 7 bariatric courses to get their certificate training in laparoscopic surgery.
Dr.Prathap C Reddy, Executive Chairman of Apollo Hospitals group as the chief guest inaugurated the conference and presided over the launch of an international journal for obesity surgery “Annals of Bariatric & Metabolic Surgeryâ€Â. Ms. Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals released a book on Bariatric Nutrition during the inauguration. Dr. Raj Palaniappan, Director of Institute of Bariatrics at Apollo Hospitals and the organising president of the conference enumerated the need for such conferences to share the knowledge and advancements in the field of Bariatric surgery.
Over the course of the three days, the congress featured live surgical workshops, keynote speeches by stalwarts, panel discussions and debates. This year, the conference was exclusively dedicated to data sharing and was designed to be unique in many ways, such as the introduction of the nutrition conference, the robotic workshop and an endoscopic workshop. It is for the first time in an OSSI conference that a breakaway session was introduced to accommodate more abstract presentations. OSSI activities are focused on skill enhancement, information exchange and knowledge sharing on surgical treatments for severely obese patients. It helps present new techniques, research, concepts to its members, who are experts in the field.
