International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium

October 5, 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Largest International Conference Hosted by UNMC/NHS This Decade:
More Than 265 Transplant Experts To Attend International Small Bowel Symposium in Omaha

More than 265 transplant experts from around the world will be coming to Omaha this week for the VI International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium Oct. 6 to 9 at the Embassy Suites Downtown. The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Health System are hosts of the event.

The symposium attendees represent 25 foreign countries and 24 states. It is the largest international conference held by UNMC/NHS in the past decade. The attendees have filled all the rooms in the Embassy Suites and a number of people are staying in three other downtown hotels.

"The symposium is held every two years," said Alan Langnas, D.O., professor of surgery and chief of the section of transplantation for UNMC. "This marks the sixth symposium that has been held, and some of the previous sites have included Paris, London, Cambridge and Pittsburgh. We're pleased to be in this company."

Small bowel transplants have come a long way in the past few years, Dr. Langnas said. They were originally considered experimental high-risk procedures, but now they have become well established and at times routinely applied therapy. Most small bowel transplant recipients are children born with serious intestinal problems. Without a small bowel transplant, these individuals can never eat solid food and are destined to be on total parenteral nutrition their entire life.

The conference kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 6, with an evening reception. The formal presentations will run from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7, and from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8.

Dr. Langnas said this year's symposium will address a number of medical issues faced by small bowel transplant patients, including patient selection, operative procedures, immunosuppression, management of complications and long-term follow-up. Other topics will include living-related transplantation and the role of non-transplant medical and surgical therapies.

The symposium will feature more than 140 abstracts, including 65 poster presentations. There will be five invited lecturers, including two from UNMC/NHS. Presenters and their topics will be: