Report of the 3^rd Annual Medanta Neuro Critical Care conference held at Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon from 31st March 2017 to 2nd April 2017

The 3^rd Annual Medanta Neuro Critical Care Conference was held at Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon, from 31^st March to 2^nd April, 2017 in collaboration with the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM), Delhi. The conference was organised by the Department of Neurocritical Care and Neuroanaesthesia at the Medanta - The Medicity Hospital, Gurgaon, with Dr. Harsh Sapra as the Organising Chairman and Dr. Gaurav Kakkar and Dr. Jaya Wanchoo as the Organising Secretaries. The conference witnessed the participation of more than 250 delegates and over 100 national and international faculty members, over the course of the 3 days. The meeting was awarded 12 CPD credit points by the Haryana Medical Council, Chandigarh.

The meeting also had the provision of online voting which was made available through a partnership with the Swedish company, ‘Mentimeter Ltd’ along with Live Webcast of all the lectures on the ISCCM, Delhi website.

The programme began on the 31^st March 2017 with three workshops planned for the start of the meeting. The first workshop of the day was the ‘Ultrasonography for the Intensivists’ which was conducted by Dr. Deepak Govil’s team (Medanta, Gurgaon). This was followed by two parallel workshops in the afternoon: ‘Simulation for Neuro-emergencies’ conducted by the team of Dr. P. N. Kakar (Park Hospitals) and Dr. Gaurav Kakkar (Medanta, Gurgaon). Aother workshop in parallel was the ‘Multimodal Monitoring in Neurointensive Care’ which was conducted by Dr. Hemanshu Prabhakar’s (AIIMS, Delhi) team.

The conference was formally inaugurated on the morning of 1^st April 2017 by Dr. Yatin Mehta (Chairman, Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Medanta) which included the traditional lamp lighting by the invited dignitaries and a welcome inaugural address by Dr. Yatin Mehta. The opening session themed ‘When the Brain Screams in Silence’ saw two case-based panel discussions on ‘Non-convulsive status and its current management’ and ‘Awareness in ICU – Do we even measure it.’ This session was moderated by Dr. Uma Maheswara Rao (NIMHANS, Bengaluru) with a panel consisting of Dr. Dhruva Chaudhry (PGIMR, Rohtak), Dr. S. Manikandan (SCTIMS, Trivandrum), Dr. Atma Ram Bansal (Medanta, Gurgaon) and Dr. Prashant Kumar (PGIMR, Rohtak).

The speakers for the above two cases were Dr. Suparna Bhardwaj (NIMHANS, Bengaluru) and Dr. Anshul Bhatia (Medanta, Gurgaon). In the next session of two keynote lectures, the first lecture on ‘Temperature Management in the Injured Brain’ was delivered by Dr. John Andrzejowski (NACCS President, UK), whereas the second lecture on ‘Non-vasospasmic complications of SAH’ was given by Dr. Sandeep Lakhani (Clinical Director, The Walton Centre, Liverpool). This session was chaired by Dr. Yatin Mehta, Dr. K. J. Choudhary (Indraprastha Apollo, New Delhi), Dr. Mihir Pandia (AIIMS, New Delhi) and Dr. Arvind Chaturvedi (AIIMS, New Delhi). This was followed by a unique video interactive session ‘When Every Tick Counts: A Stroke Journey.’ The moderator for this session was Dr. Kapil Zirpe (Ruby Hall, Pune) whilst the panelists were Dr. Gaurav Goel (Medanta, Gurgaon), Dr. Arun Garg (Medanta, Gurgaon) and Dr. V. Ponniah (Apollo, Chennai). The case video was prepared and presented by Dr. Anshul Yadav and Dr. Vikyath Jain (Medanta, Gurgaon). This was followed by the release of Dr. Hemanshu Prabhakar’s text – ‘Manual of Neuroanaesthesia – The Essentials.’ The book was released in the presence of eminent national and international faculty and stalwarts of neuroanaesthesia. The meeting also saw the launch of ‘The Medanta-Walton Fellowship’ in neuroanaesthesia and critical care which was announced by Dr. Harsh Sapra (Medanta, Medicity) and Dr. Sandeep Lakhani (The Walton Centre, Liverpool). Furthermore, launched was the new simulation society dedicated to neurosciences called ‘Brain STEM’ - brain simulation training to enhance patient management (www.brainstem.co.in).

The pre-lunch session on paediatric neuroanaesthesia titled ‘Bigger Challenges in Smaller Packets’ had three case presentations on traumatic brain injury, craniopharyngioma management and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. These cases were presented by Dr. Maninder Dhaliwal (Medanta, Gurgaon) and were moderated by Dr. Pratibha Singhi (Medanta, Gurgaon). The panelists for this session were Dr. Sunit Singhi (Medanta, Gurgaon), Dr. Ashish Bindra (AIIMS, New Delhi), Dr. Mary Abraham and Dr. Devendra Gupta (SGPGI, Lucknow). Following lunch, the obstetric session titled ‘The Hand that Rocks the Cradle’ had 2 cases of cavernous venous sinus thrombosis and posterior reversible encephalopathic syndrome. They were moderated by Dr. Rajiv Chawla (GBPH, New Delhi) and presented by Dr. Vasudha Singhal and Dr. Shaina Kalra (Medanta, Gurgaon). The panelists for this session were Dr. Monica Tandon (GBPH, New Delhi), Dr. Kavita Sandhu (Max Hospitals, New Delhi), Sg. Cpt. Rahul Yadav (R and R, New Delhi) and Dr. Satyavir Singhal (Royal Victoria, Belfast). The next two lectures chaired by Dr. Rajesh Misra (Artemis, Gurgaon), Dr. Jayashree Sood (SGRH, New Delhi) and Dr. Tariq Ali (Medanta, Gurgaon) were ‘ARDS and the Injured Brain’ by Dr. Rajesh Chawla (Indraprastha Apollo, New Delhi) and ‘Non-invasive ventilatory techniques in neuro-ICU’ by Dr. Dhruva Chaudhry (PGIMR, Rohtak). This was followed by the keynote lecture on ‘ECMO and Brain: Who needs Whom.’ by Dr. Vivek Kakar (Cleveland, Abu Dhabi) and was chaired by Dr. Deepak Govil (Medanta, Gurgaon) and Dr. Yash Javeri (Apex, New Delhi). After this, the well-received lecture was the last session of the day; ‘Spa Time’; Renal Replacement in neuro-Intensive Care Unit. This session had two cases on Renal Replacement Therapy and Cytosorb Filters which were moderated by Dr. Ranajit Chatterjee (SDN, New Delhi) and presented by Dr. Deepak Solanki and Dr. Shehla Shakhoo (Medanta, Gurgaon). This session was chaired by Dr. Yash Javeri, Lt. Col. Bhavna Hooda (R and R, New Delhi), Dr. Reshma Tewari (Artemis, New Delhi) and Dr. S. Moed. Running parallel to the lectures was the third workshop of the conference on ‘Bronchoscopy’ which was conducted by Dr. Vivek Nangia (Fortis, Vasant Kunj) and team. The evening had the cultural programme at The Kingdom of Dreams where the faculty and invited guests were witness to the theatrical play ‘Zangoora’ followed by the faculty gala dinner.

The day 2 of the meeting started with the session on infectious diseases with cases on rickettsial infections and skull base mucormycosis. They were moderated by Dr. Vivek Nangia (Fortis, Vasant Kunj) and were presented by Dr. Ila Bisht and Dr. Vikyath Jain (Medanta, Gurgaon). The panelists for this session were Dr. Neha Gupta, Dr. Navin Kumar (Medanta, Gurgaon) and Dr. G. C. Khilnani (AIIMS, New Delhi). This was followed by a novel session termed ‘Trial of Trials’ which was moderated by Dr. Gaurav Kakkar (Medanta, Gurgaon) which saw a discussion on four recent trials: Rescue ICP, PROPRR, THRACE and EPO-TBI. The distinguished faculty chairing this session were Dr. H. H. Dash (FMRI, Gurgaon), Maj. Gen. N. S Lamba (R & R, New Delhi), Dr. Uma Maheswara Rao (NIMHANS, Bengaluru) and Dr. S. Manikandan (Sri Chitra, Trivandrum). The next keynote lecture was delivered by Dr. Camilla Rodrigues (Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai) and was titled ‘Newer trends in standard and emerging Meningitis.’ This session was chaired by Dr. A. N. Jha (Chairman, Neurosciences – Medanta, Gurgaon) and Dr. Shobha Purohit (SMS, Jaipur). Following this was the panel discussion titled ‘When Friends Become Foes.’ which had two cases on the ‘Role of NOACs’ and ‘DVT Prophylaxis.’ They were moderated by Dr. Vinayak Aggarwal (Medanta, Gurgaon) and were presented by Dr. Varun Jain (Medanta, Gurgaon). The panelists for this session were Dr. Pragati Ganjoo (GBPH, New Delhi), Dr. GP Singh (AIIMS, New Delhi), Dr. S Srivastava (SGPGI, Lucknow), Dr. VK Parashar (Jaipur) and Dr. Saurabh Anand (Artemis, Gurgaon). The next panel discussion on traumatic brain injury was moderated by Dr. Prasanna Bidkar (JIPMER, Puducherry) and was presented by Dr. Dhruba Lahkar (Medanta, Gurgaon). Panelists for this session included Dr. V. J. Ramesh, Dr. K. Gopalakrishna (NIMHANS, Bengaluru), Dr. Nidhi Panda (PGI, Chandigarh) and Dr. Virendra Jain (FMRI, Gurgaon). The next two keynote lectures were on ‘Cervical Spine Management Beyond its Ventilatory Issues’ presented by Dr. M Radhakrishnan (NIMHANS, Bengaluru) and ‘Chequers of the Black and White Coats – Medicolegal and Ethical Issues in Organ Donation’ presented by Advocate M. K. Bajpai (IML, Mumbai). These sessions were chaired by Dr. Ashok Saxena (GBPH, New Delhi), Dr. Surendra Sharma (FMRI, Gurgaon), Dr. Anirban Bannerjee (Medanta, Gurgaon), Dr. Surindar Saini (Paras, Gurgaon), Dr. L. D. Mishra (BHU, Varanasi) and Dr. Anil Parakh (Seven Hills, Mumbai). The concluding panel discussion on nutrition titled ‘Counting the Calories, Flowing the Fluid - Do we know what we are doing?’ was moderated by Dr. Swagatha Tripathy (AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar) and was panelled by Dr. Alka Chandra (Hindu Rao, New Delhi), Dr. Sushmita Sarangi (DDU, New Delhi), Dr. Jitender Sharma (Artemis, Gurgaon) and Mrs. Divya Kakkar (MCHFT, UK). The post-lunch session had two parallel workshops: ‘Neuroradiology for the neurointensivist’ conducted by Dr. Gaurav Goel and his team and the ‘Airway Workshop’ which was conducted by Dr. Rakesh Sharma and the AMF team.

The meeting was concluded with the completion of the above two workshops.

Overall, the entire meeting was extremely well attended and well received with positive feedback from both the delegates and the faculty.