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A Message from the IIRTA President - December 2024
Dr. Jonathan Hind, UK
Dear Colleagues,
As the year is drawing to a close and the festive season is almost here for many of us, I am writing to update you on the association's activities from 2024 and looking forward to an exciting 2025. I'll start with some important messages.
The IIRTA is calling for letters of intent to host CIIRTA 2027. We are a global society with aims to advocate for our patients around the world, so, after the US in 2023 and Sweden next year, bids will be accepted from outside of Europe and North America. The closing date for a letter of intent is January 24, 2025.
Secondly, nominations are now open for IIRTA council members - President-Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and councilors. Please consider applying and shape our society for the future. Details are here on the website homepage: www.tts.org/iirta.
This year, the main news is the growing success of our journal Intestinal Failure: The Journal of the International Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Association. Two issues have already been published, and the team are hard at work on the third. There will also be a special issue with top papers from the recent PIFRS conference, held in Pittsburgh. A great achievement in a short space of time from the small editorial board. A huge thank you to them; Editor-In-Chief Doug Farmer, Deputy Editor Helen Evans, and Associate Editors Simon Lal, and Josh Weiner. Special thanks must go to Alan Buchman who pushed the idea of a journal forward to fruition.
Some interesting articles are already published, and I encourage you to submit your work. The journal is becoming the go-to place for articles in our field and as such the impact factor will become high.
In other news the intestinal failure registry led by Yaron Avitzur continues to grow, as do the chapters of our association around the world. A Brazilian chapter has recently formed, and we look forward to chapter activities such as the Singapore-Duke Intestinal Transplant Symposium coming up in March 2025.
Next year, of course, it is our main meeting, CIIRTA 2025 to be held in Gothenburg. The Gothenburg and Stockholm teams together with the IIRTA are working hard to bring you an exciting scientific and social programme. Please look on the website for important dates such as abstract submission. www.ciirta2025.org
Wishing all of you a happy and restful season.
Jonathan Hind
IIRTA President
IIRTA 2025 Council Election Nominations
In accordance with the IIRTA bylaws, we are requesting nominations for the biennial election. Nominations are sought for:
- President-Elect (to serve 2025-2027), followed by service as President from 2027-2029 and then as Past-President from 2029-2031) – Must have served 4 years on council.
- Secretary/Treasurer (to serve from 2025-2029) Must have served 4 years on council
- 3 councilors (to serve from 2025-2029)
Description of President-Elect position
The President-Elect shall have and exercise such powers and shall perform such duties as from time to time may be conferred upon or assigned to them by the Council, or as may be delegated to them by the President. All nominees for President-Elect should have served at least one full term (four years) on the Council prior to their nomination for President-Elect.
Description of Secretary-Treasurer position
The Secretary-Treasurer shall have charge and be responsible for all funds, securities, receipts and authorized disbursements of the Association, and shall deposit, or cause to be deposited, in the name of the Association, all Monies or other valuable effects in such banks, trust companies or other depositories as shall, from time to time, be selected by the Council. He/she shall render to the President and to the Council, whenever requested, an account of the financial condition of the Association; and shall in any event report annually to the Council and shall submit financial statements certified by independent public accountants chosen by the Council to the Council and Members at each regular meeting of Members. In general, he/she shall perform all duties incident to the offices of a secretary and a treasurer of a corporation, and such other duties as from time to time may be assigned to him/her by the Council.
Council Expectations
Regular meetings of the Council are usually held every other month (with one face-to-face, full day meeting around Congress time) and are usually planned well in advance. Regular attendance is encouraged whenever possible. Committee involvement is also encouraged. The Council usually meets on Zoom or similar communications equipment.
To be eligible for election, the candidate must be a Full Member, in good standing of the IIRTA at the time of their nomination and during their term of office.
person shall be nominated if their name is submitted with a written signature or email of support from at least 2 voting Members in good standing, along with an up to 200 words of the nominee’s curriculum vitae and the nominee’s acceptance to stand for election.
Nominations can be completed online at via the link below and submitted no later than February 2, 2025. Election will take place in March 2025.
Submission Deadline: February 2, 2025
CIIRTA 2027 Call for Hosting
Submission Deadline: January 24, 2025
Upcoming IIRTA Chapters Symposium
Congratulations to our 2023 Living Legends Recipients
International Intestinal Transplant Registry (IITR)
IIRTA Survey - Outcomes for Abdominal Wall Closer in Transplant Patients
As you will certainly know, non-vascularized rectus fascia (NVRF) transplantation was first described in 2009 (Gondolesi et al. Transplantation 2009;87:1884–8) as a novel technique to close the abdominal wall after solid organ transplantation. By using this technique, extensive abdominal wall repair was avoided and the technique is gaining interest worldwide. Later the vascularized fascia transplant was introduced as alternative (VRF).
So far, experience with (N)VRF transplantation is scarcely reported. At our transplant center in Leuven, Belgium, we performed our first case of NVRF transplant in September 2020. Dr. Nele Van De Winkel is an abdominal surgeon at our center who is specialized in abdominal wall surgery. Based on her specialty she developed a specific interest regarding (N)VRF and is currently working on a PhD thesis on this topic. She recently completed a systematic literature review, published in Transplantation Reviews (2021 Jun 4;35(4):100634). This review revealed that data on long-term outcome following NVRF regarding the strength and functionality of the abdominal wall is scarce.
Therefore we took the initiative for a multi-center survey on this topic to collect and analyze the world-wide practice and long-term outcome after (non-)vascularized fascia transplantation.
For this survey we have developed an excel sheet (1 excel file) and survey manual (PDF). We would be very grateful if you or one of your team members could have a look into this questionnaire and return your response directly to Nele (nele.vandewinkel@uzleuven.be) (1 sheet for each individual case).
It would be worth considering to publish in the near future the results of this multicenter survey if we can collect a sufficient number of cases performed worldwide. Participating centers would of course be granted a co-authorship.
Many thanks for your help and support. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly in case you have any further questions on this email.
Best regards,
Laurens Ceulemans (transplant surgeon)
Nele Van De Winkel (abdominal surgeon and PhD student)
On behalf of the Leuven LIFT team
Nicolas Duchateau Young Investigator Award
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Contact
Address
International Intestinal Rehabilitation & Transplant Association
c/o The Transplantation Society
740 Notre-Dame Ouest
Suite 1245
Montréal, QC, H3C 3X6
Canada