I was thrilled to attend a very special event this April - the Joint Congress of the British and Spanish Societies for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH and SECMA). It was the first time these two groups came together like this, and in the beautiful Palma de Mallorca at that. It was inspiring to see experts from the UK, Spain and beyond sharing ideas and pushing the field of hand surgery forward.
It was a real honour to have my elective project be part of this gathering in the form of a poster presentation. My project focused on comparing recurrence and length of time to repeat procedure between two different management options for the treatment of Dupuytren’s disease: percutaneous needle fasciotomy (a minimally invasive technique, most commonly done in an outpatient setting in NHS Grampian) and limited fasciectomy (an open surgery that’s considered, the gold standard management of Dupuytren’s disease).
Presenting my project to experts was definitely nerve wracking! To top it off, the poster presentation set up was different to the traditional one where you stood next to your poster and waited for people to approach you. Instead, I had a few minutes on the podium to talk through my project in front of an audience. Although daunting, in the end I was glad to be pushed outside of my comfort zone and gain more experience of presenting to a bigger crowd.
Aside from presenting my poster, I had the opportunity to attend many interesting and educational talks. For example, one session focussed on wrist and finger stiffness, with several presenters guiding us through a comprehensive overview, from the underlying pathophysiology, to clinical examination of the stiff hand, and all the way through to surgical and post-operative management.
In another lecture, I gained further insight into some of the challenges faced when conducting surgical research in orthopaedics and ways researchers are attempting to overcome them. Overall, it was a valuable learning experience and gave me a better appreciation for the work that goes into advancing surgical care.
One of the highlights of the trip was meeting some lovely, like-minded people, from fellow medical students to doctors of various grades whose friendly faces made the whole experience much less intimidating. The sunshine and warm weather definitely didn’t hurt either!
I’m incredibly grateful to my supervisors, Miss Clare Miller and Mr David Lawrie for their support throughout this project, and to the University of Aberdeen for helping to make this opportunity possible. I left Mallorca feeling inspired, encouraged, and more excited than ever to see where my interest in surgery might lead me next.
