Our goal is to provide excellent physical and emotional health for all people with intestinal failure through rehabilitation and transplantation.


CIRTA XVIII - SAVE THE DATE!

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Presidents Message

Dr. Gabriel E. Gondolesi
IRTA PRESIDENT

Dear Colleagues,

I have now completed my first year of service as your President.

The IRTA community should know, that it has a been a privilege for me to work with this group of remarkable, committed Council members, who are indeed a multinational group of the different key specialities needed to take care of our patients in a comprehensive fashion.

The aim of this letter is to update you on the actions we have completed during this year as a council, based on a priority proposal for our action plan.

By maintaining Excellence, Collaboration, Advocacy and Integrity as our core values, and by serving all members and patients constituting ourselves as global community of practice, IRTA continues to grow as the main and most respected IF and ITx Association.

Thanks for this first year,

Prof. Gabriel E. Gondolesi MD, MAAC, FACS.
President, IRTA


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WEB PAGE
  • Our web page, has been renewed and updated. Space has been given to each of our committees in order for them to promote goals, initiatives and achievements. Important information about the IRTA Intestinal Failure Registry has now been added to the website under the “Registries” tab. Our latest webinar recordings, as well as all those done in 2021, can be found under the “Education” tab and are available to all IRTA members.
REGISTRIES
  • IITR: Eric Pahl, is our new Registry Manager, working under the leadership of Dr. Robert Venick. Emails were sent to the participant centers to start re-entering the data. Deadlines were sent, in order to reach our goal of obtaining the most updated registry for CIRTA 2023 in Chicago. Work has been done with NHS and the SRTR to obtain the information. Data Collaboration Agreement templates were created for the centers in order to facilitate the IRB process. Each regional council and chapter leader, will have the responsibility to inform IITR of new centers, providing contact information and to ensure growth.
  • IFR: The successful pediatric IFR, evolved by Dr. Yaron Avitzur, has 15 approved centers, 2 abstracts produced and submitted to ASPEN; as well as an RO1. The development of an Adult IFR Working Group, was proposed under the leadership of Dr. Palle Jeppesen, who will work with the necessary strength to have the pilot phase ready by 2023.
  • Intestinal failure centers will be identified, contacted to become members and will be added to the web page.
  • EDUCATION
  • Under the leadership of Dr. Laurens Ceulemans, (chair of the Membership and Education Committee) and Christina Belza, (chair of the AHP Committee), 4 webinars were created in 2021 and 3 so far in 2022, with more being planned for the fall.
  • The council has considered it a priority to produce IRTA guidelines, position statements or IRTA approved/endorsed manuscripts. The survey on COVID-19 IRTA manuscript published by Segovia M, et al. in Transplantation, serves as a first example. Currently, the IRTA is working on several projects: A position statement on ITx Indications; Guidelines on IF and Rehabilitation Management; AHP IRTA guidelines; a position statement on ITx waiting list prioritizing challenges; the New Zealand meeting report, and a consensus on indications for MTV TX due to NET.
  • The IRTA had agree to promote Dr. Kishore Iyer’s “Lift-Echo activities”, and now we are in the process of having our webpage, linked on the Lift-Echo page, and we are considering the development of combined educational activities.
COMMITTEES
  • The Basic and Translational Research Committee has been developed under the leadership of Dr. Tomoaki Kato which was organized and established as part of the Scientific Committee, and meetings have begun
  • .
  • The Communications Committee has been developed, with Lisa Sharkey as chair. Other new committees are being proposed.
  • If you are interested in being involved in our committees and have some expertise to share, we welcome you. Please contact our Manager, Suzanne Landis at Suzanne.Landis@tts.org.
IRTA CHAPTERS
  • In order to expand our network and to amplify education, teaching and to outreach underserved areas, regional Chapters have been created. With less than 2 months after launching, 8 chapters have applied, 3 approved, 5 pending approval, 6 new IRTA members were brought on by the approved centers; 7 renewed their memberships. Regional councils, should help identifying more interested countries. Chapter recognition plaques for new Chapters will be given at TTS 2022 to those in attendance. Scientific and educational initiatives are expected to be proposed, in order for us to start mentoring them.
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
  • Following an initiative by Dr. Laurens Ceulemans and with full support of the Duchateau family, the Nicholas Duchateau Young Investigator Award was created – Information and donation details have been published on our web page, and a total of 7 contributions have been made.
  • After a proposal made by Dr. Christophe Chardot, the movie, “Live like Others”, was added to the IRTA web page. Dr. Badaloni, one of our program trainees worked on translating the sub-titles from English to Spanish, and the IRTA logo was incorporated at the end of the film.
FINANCES
  • The Association continues to have a solid economical balance.
CIRTA 2023
  • Last but not least, the Scientific Program Committee for CIRTA 2023, under the leadership of Dr. Alan Buchman, meet regularly, and are currently in the final steps to defining the full program for our Chicago Congress which will take place on June 30-July 3, 2023. Sponsors are in the process of being contacted, and the budget in the process of being finalized. We look forward to having all the IRTA community start producing single and multicenter, clinical, basic and translational science studies to be shared in Chicago.

IRTA CHAPTERS

The Council of the Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Association (IRTA) would like to announce the approval of a new policy to promote the development of local chapters within the organization.

Start A Local Chapter Today!


25 YEARS OF INTESTINAL TRANSPLANTATION & REHABILITATION AT SAHLGRENSKA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL ”Past, Present and Future”
22-23 May 2023, Gothenburg, Sweden

International Intestinal Transplant Registry

Download the 2019 Final Report and the Data Entry Primer Presentation

VISIT THE ITR PAGE


International Intestinal Failure Registry (IFR)

Goal
The IFR aims to improve the lives of children with intestinal failure by creating a large international database that will serve as a reliable, contemporary repository to promote research, develop best practices, and guide evidence-based management in pediatric intestinal failure
Center benefits
  • Participation in a large international network to study pediatric intestinal failure
  • REDCap based electronic database for each participating center
  • Center report with registry benchmarks for specific outcomes and IF complications
  • Access to the registry data and research opportunities
  • Funding for large volume centers (>10 patients)
Inclusion criteria
  • Children younger than 18y with intestinal failure (≥ 60 days on PN)
  • Followed by intestinal rehabilitation program (defined as a minimal program staffing of a pediatric gastroenterologist, surgeon, dietitian and a nurse)
Endorsements

The IFR is endorsed by the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN)

The IFR is supported by non-restricted and education grants by Takeda LTD and Stanford University & the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital

Call for Center Participation - To join the registry or for more information please contact Dr. Yaron Avitzur and Nilosa Selvakumaran ifr@intestinalregistry.org

SPLIT-IRTA EMAIL LISTSERV

Open to all Healtcare professionals! We have partnered with our fellow TTS Section, SPLIT, to develop a listserv to help track and address both COVID 19 related queries as well as general discussions related to the care of hepatology, pre- and post-liver and intestinal transplant patients.

Learn Intestinal Failure TeleECHO Clinic (LIFT-ECHO)

IRTA Survey - Outcomes for Abdominal Wall Closer in Transplant Patients

We encourage our members to take this multi-center survey to collect and analyze the world-wide practice and long-term outcome after (non-)vascularized fascia transplantation.

Full Details

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

New ICD-10CM and ICD-11 Codes for Short Bowel Syndrome AND Intestinal Failure

If you have specific questions or comments, please e-mail Alan Buchman directly at: a.buchman@hotmail.com


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Alan Buchman, Loris Pironi, and Stephane Schneider have petitioned the Medical and Scientific Committee (MASC) of the WHO to accept Intestinal Failure-Associated Liver Disease (IFALD) and sub-divisions of the newly approved Short Bowel Syndrome code into SBS with colon in continuity and SBS without colon in continuity as new diagnostic codes for ICD-11 (effective January 1, 2022). If accepted by the WHO, the additional codes would be approved in early 2022 and added to ICD-11. It is important that we show our support by voting to "agree" with this proposal.

In order to do so, you will need to go to the WHO's ICD-11 webpage and create an account and search for "short bowel syndrome" in the search box. This will show support that member countries should see so that they vote affirmative in early 2021 to finalize the codes. You will need to do the same for Intestinal Failure-Associated Liver Disease, which is listed under “Specific Liver Disease” rather than Intestinal Failure at the WHO’s request. Definitions are included.

A proposal was also submitted to the CDC for updating the ICD-10CM with the newly proposed codes as well. We are waiting to learn when the new codes for Short Bowel Syndrome and Intestinal Failure will become effective in ICD-10CM. IRTA will be sending a letter of support to the CDC on behalf of our members. It will be important for the IRTA to stay involved in this process.


NEW Nicolas Duchateau Young Investigator Award

The Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplantation Association (IRTA) has founded the Nicolas Duchateau Young Investigator Award to recognize a young scientist who has contributed to the field of intestinal failure or transplantation by sharing his or her research findings at the biennial IRTA Conference.

Congratulations to our recent award winners


The Transplant Infectious Disease Section (TID) has prepared a new update and guidance on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) for transplant ID clinicians.

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Contact

Staff Directory
+1-514-874-1717 ,X : 216
sections@tts.org

Address

Intestinal Rehabilitation & Transplant Association
International Headquarters
740 Notre-Dame Ouest
Suite 1245
Montréal, QC, H3C 3X6
Canada