Manchester, 7th and 8th June
Alex ventured up north to our home town of Manchester for the BSSH Instructional course on ‘soft tissue correction, burns and infection’ as an invited speaker. BSSH stands for The British Society of Surgery for the Hand. The Society runs popular national instructional courses that cover the syllabus of hand surgery in the UK for trainees.
Alex gave lectures on the ‘management of the burned hand’, the ‘use of dermal substitutes in burns’ and her ‘technique on skin grafting’. Many of these types of courses now focus on tips and tricks from an expert panel and Alex is well placed to talk about both the acute burns care and the reconstructive procedures that follow. Furthermore, she particularly enjoyed leading the interactive group sessions where the delegates discussed examples of scarred hands requiring complex reconstruction.
I know Alex found it to be a really enjoyable course and great opportunity to catch up with consultant colleagues from all over the UK. The BSSH is normally full of hand surgeons, so it was a breath of fresh air to have a burns surgeon on the panel and I was sent numerous photos from mutual friends.
It is also really inspiring to hear there has been a focus on burns and scarring of hands specifically. Often there is a real focus on other parts of the body with scarring; however, the hands are so imperative to our function, our ability to live independently, and often one of the first things we see when we go to shake someone’s hand that getting good outcomes for patients with scarred hands is really something to strive for.