Surgery and surgical research in conflict settings

Description

An event by the Healthcare in Conflict research network.

Speakers

• Carlos Pilasi Menichetti (MD MSc FACS)
• Michael Bath (Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge)

Abstracts

Carlos Pilasi Menichetti
‘The Hostile Abdomen in a Hostile Environment’

The hostile abdomen in surgery refers to a situation where the abdominal cavity is open and scarred into a solid mass with with fragile small bowel loops adhered to each other, often complicated by fistulae and retraction of the abdominal wall edges – often considered a ’surgical nightmare.’ This talk will explain how the optimum approach is to managing such cases but will then go into how the situation is further complicated by working in a conflict, ‘hostile’ setting often where resources are low. Warning – this talk will feature footage and descriptions of surgical procedures.

Michael Bath
‘Understanding Trauma Pathways in Low-Resource and Conflict Affected Settings’

Mike will be discussing the GOAL-Trauma study, including the process in setting up the study and its expected outputs, with relevance to current trauma pathways. The study currently has recruiting centres across 40 countries and is set to be one of the largest studies in global trauma care ever performed. He is working with conflict affected countries including Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Ukraine. Mike will discuss the research challenges in setting up a research setting affected by armed conflict.

About the speakers

Dr Carlos Pilasi is a consultant emergency and trauma surgeon currently working at QE hospital in Birmingham, UK
He originally trained in Chile first as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and after that as a general surgeon. Then he continued his post grad studies in Sydney, Australia where he obtained his qualifications in trauma and emergency surgery. He then worked as a consultant trauma surgeon in Sydney until he moved 10 years back to London in the same position in 2 different MTC (Kings College and St Georges), he has been appointed  in 2024 as a consultant trauma and emergency surgeon In Birmingham MTC.
During early stages of his career and following one of his dreams and passions Carlos joined MSF (Doctors without borders) and has been deployed to all 5 continents during his missions. Using his unique skillsets he has been in the role of field O&G, field Surgeon but as well as advisor for MSF France in O&G and Trauma in 2 different periods. He is also part of the MSF telemedicine advisors. He has equally had several missions with ICRC and WHO.
Dr Pilasi is passionate about delivering quality medical care directly in the field and through trainings, both standard trauma courses in high income countries and as well trainings specifically addressed to humanitarian doctors and bedside teaching as part of MSF responsibilities.
One of the other interests he has in surgery is the care for intestinal failure patients which even though is not the main problem in the field it carries an immense load of morbidity and mortality for the patients affected and their families.

Dr Michael Bath is a doctoral research student at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on better understanding trauma care provision worldwide and developing trauma systems in low and middle incomesettings.
He works as a General Surgery Registrar in London, UK. Having completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Leicester, he has since worked as an Academic Clinical Fellow in Surgery at Queen Mary University of London and has completed a Masters Degree in Clinical Research.
He has presented his work on Global Surgery at a side session to the World Health Assembly and acts as a reviewer for multiple peer-review journals, including the British Medical Journal. He is the Lead Investigator for the GOAL-Trauma Study, a multi-centre observational study on trauma laparotomy patients globally.

Images: MSF obstetric deployment and bedside teaching, MSF trauma surgery deployments in an inflatable hospital, Carlos at work in UK

For enquiries, please contact the Research Networks Programme Manager.