78th Annual Meeting of AAST Recap
The 78th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and Clinical Congress of the Acute Care Surgery was held September 18-21 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The meeting included over 65 oral presentations, 25 Quick Shot presentations, and 140 posters.
Highlights of the program included the Presidential Address by Dr. Martin Croce titled the “Traumacare” ( https://www.pscp.tv/traumadoctors/1OdJrLdlRzyKX ). The introduction of Dr. Croce by the President-Elect Dr. David Spain broke the convention of a typical introduction by not including any cute pictures from Dr. Croce’s childhood. Instead, he compared Dr. Croce to Winnie the Pooh in order to illustrate Dr. Croce’s commitment to his patients, friends, and colleagues with steadiness, strength, and simplicity. The address covered a wide range of topics including the epidemic nature of trauma care and the disproportionally low funding for trauma research. He then focused on what he termed “Traumacare” which would be an organized, national trauma system including funding research proportionate to the burden of the disease, and funding for uncompensated patient care. Dr. Croce then proposed how this system could be funded by various taxes and surcharges.
The meeting also included two Master Surgeon Lectures. The first one was delivered by Dr. Wayne Meredith on “Operative Thoracic Trauma: Tips, Tricks, and an Occasional Anecdote”
https://www.pscp.tv/traumadoctors/1rmGPXloypEGN. One anecdote was that “you can’t eat jello with a straw” referring to trying to remove the clot from the pericardium and pleural space with catheters. The second Master Surgeon Lecture was by Dr. Jurkovic entitled “Pancreatic Trauma” https://www.pscp.tv/traumadoctors/1RDGlNDpLjzxL
The 45th annual Fitts lecture entitled “A Seussian Tale of a Trauma Time Traveler” was delivered by Dr. Timothy C. Fabian, a past president of AAST. https://www.pscp.tv/traumadoctors/1YpJkYPjvDYKj). His talk reflected on the last 50 years of trauma care by both celebrating our successes and documenting how we can learn from our failures.
The meeting this year also included a new silent and live fundraising auction which lead to spirited bidding as well as the #QuiltGate2019 controversy. It was well attended by over 1,227 people including 87 international attendees from 23 different countries. Corporate sponsors including the Silver Sponsor Portola, and Bronze Sponsors Envision Physician Services, Avanos and PolarityTE. The meeting adjourned on Saturday already looking forward to the 2020 79th Annual Meeting in Hawaii.