ISOT Conference on Organ Transplantation at KIMS

The Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), a constituent of KII University, is organizing the 24th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT) 2013 from October 25 – 27, 2013. This prestigious conference, held under the auspices of Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, will be attended by top neurologists, surgeons, immunogenetists, cardiologists, hematologists transplant coordinators and
others. It is being held for the first time in Odisha in Dr. S. C. Dash, Director, KIMS, Dr. B.C. Das, Principal, KIMS, Eminent Nephrologists including Dr. N. K. Mahanty and Dr. A. C. Mahakud.

Organ transplantation is the most spectacular achievement of medical sciences in the 20th Century. End stage kidney failure patients can now hope to survive 15-20 years more or longer due to advancements in the field. In contrast, five decades ago this disease was uniformly fatal. Chronic Kidney Failure is becoming a growing public health problem. It is
caused by factors such as increased incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and industrial pollution of air and water.

Approximately 1.5 lakh patients in India need immediate dialysis followed by transplantation. Another 10 lakh patients are in different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) who will eventually develop terminal kidney failure needing dialysis and transplantation. But there are only 1000 nephrologists and 200 kidney transplant surgeons in India, a number highly inadequate to meet the demand. Similarly, heart, liver and bone marrow transplantation are highly inadequate and done only in few centers in India.

The 24th ISOT Conference will deliberate on the demand for organ transplantation as well as inadequacy of organs and medical professionals in the field. Organ transplantation is not a simple surgery, rather it can be called Nephro-Immuno-surgery. The conference will also discuss technical, immunological and other complex issues – social, ethical and legal – involved, besides the issue of organ harvesting in brain dead ICU patients.

Prof. (Dr.) S. C. Dash, Director, KIMS and former Professor & Head, Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplant Medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi is Chairing the Organising Committee of the conference. Eminent surgeons and nephrologists including Dr. Sandeep Guleria (Ex-AIIMS, from Apollo Hospital, Delhi), Dr. A. S. Soin, leading liver transplantation surgeon (Delhi), Dr. Mohd. Rela, Dr. Ashok Kirpalani, Dr. Alam Almeida,
Mumbai, Dr. Ravi Rajan, Dr. S. Saharia (Hyderabad), Dr. R. K. Sharma (Lucknow), Dr. S. K. Agarwal, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr. Dillip K Pahari (Kolkata) and many others will attend the conference. It will also have the participation of eminent nephrologists from USA, UK and Australia. A pre-conference CME will be conducted by Dr. Sanjeev Sethi from USA.

As a humanitarian gesture the organizing committee has decided to donate part of the fee collected to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund for cyclone Phailin relief and restoration work.