Outcomes of the Eighth International Conference on Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Perfusion

The Eighth International Conference on Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Perfusion was held at the Galatasaray University, Istanbul, Turkey, June 13–16, 2012 (Fig. 1).Atif Akcevin, MD, was the local chair of the conference. The scientific co-chairs of the eighth event were Atif Akcevin, Tijen Alkan-Bozkaya, Ihsan Bakir, Hakan Ceyran, Yves Durandy, Huriyet Ersayin-Kantas, Colleen E. Gruenwald, David Palanzo, Linda Pauliks, Kerem Pekkan, Chitra Ravishankar, Eugen Sandica, Kyung Sun, Riza Turkoz, Akif Undar, Bonnie Weaver, and John L. Myers. As we stated in the past seven editorials, the overall objective of the meeting was and still is to bring together internationally known clinicians, bioengineers, and basic scientists involved in research on pediatric mechanical circulatory support systems and pediatric cardiopulmonary bypass procedures. Primarily, we focus to explicitly describe the problems with current pediatric mechanical circulatory support systems, methods, and techniques during acute and chronic support and to suggest solutions and future directions for research (1–3). Over 200 participants from 20 countries participated at the eighth annual event. One hundred one formal presentations including a keynote lecture, 40 invited lectures, 29 oral, and 32 poster presentations began on Thursday morning June 14, 2012 and continued through Saturday evening June 16, 2012. To date, over 800 presentations (320 invited lectures, 220 slide, and 260 poster presentations) and 400 peer-reviewed articles were published based on this unique event (http://pennstatehershey.org/web/ pedscpb/home). It was a great honor to have William S. Pierce, MD, from Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, as the keynote lecturer. His lecture entitled “A 40-Year Odyssey in Mechanical Circulatory Support” was a great historic lecture and it was a privilege to listen to his talk (Figs. 2 and 3a,b). In addition, platform presentations took place in 2-h blocks during the morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Plenary sessions were held throughout the conference focusing on key topics including “Managing the Single Ventricle Patient from Fetus to Definite Treatment” (led by co-chairs David Anderson, MD, and John L. Myers, MD), “Pediatric MCS—Devices & Outcomes” (led by co-chairs William S. Pierce, MD, and Kyung Sun, MD, PhD, MBA), “Bioengineering Approaches in Pediatric Cardiovascular Medicine” (led by Akif Undar, PhD, and Jeffrey D. Zahn, PhD), “Extracorporeal Life Support” (led by Chitra Ravishankar, MD, and Bonnie Weaver, RN, CCRN), “Multi-Disciplinary Team Approach to Solve the Complex Problems in Neonatal and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery” (led by Ihsan Bakir, MD [Turkey], and Tayyar Sarioglu, MD), “Cardiopulmonary Perfusion” (led by Colleen E. Gruenwald, PhD, and David Palanzo, CCP), “Myocardial Protection during CPB” doi:10.1111/j.1525-1594.2012.01562.x FIG. 1. Halil Tűrkoglu, William S. Pierce, PeggyJayne Pierce, Akif Undar, Ihsan Bakir, and John L. Myers. bs_bs_banner