Event Location
Cambridge - United Kingdom
Event Dates
02 Jun 2014 - 04 Jun 2014
Event Website
http://www.camoto.org/
Event Cost
Now in its sixth year, the Cambridge Advanced Otology course aims to give senior trainees and consultants the opportunity to learn about and practise specific techniques to improve their otological practice.
The hospital’s permanent temporal bone lab provides the setting for the hands-on aspect of the course with short ‘in my experience’ presentations by the leading lights in British otology delivered in the nearby hospital boardroom.
Delegates are schooled in the philosophy of cartilage tympanoplasty, ossiculoplasty, stapes surgery, middle ear and cochlear implantation and the applications of LASER in middle ear surgery. Importantly, the certificate of attendance includes a LASER safety certificate; always handy to keep sister happy!
In addition to one side of a fresh-frozen cadaveric head each, the various taught skills are subsequently practised in a round-robin format with stations for cartilage harvest and cutting, prosthesis handling and insertion, otoendoscopy and the enviable opportunity to spend time locked in a dark room with John Hamilton, from Gloucester, cooking steak with a mirror-directed LASER fibre. John\’s lecture on his experience with LASER for cholesteatoma with an intact ossicular chain is very interesting and somewhat contrary to traditional teaching. As each day draws to a close a relaxed and honest case-based panel discussion is held with the experts baring their dirty otological laundry; an extremely valuable learning opportunity which helps to keep interest after a long day in the dissecting room. On the second evening, pre dinner drinks by the Cam (with spontaneous entertainment provided by the locals), enabled further discussions to morph into more relaxed socialising over dinner.
The Cambridge Advanced Otology Course is an excellent course for those with an interest in improving their knowledge and skills in middle ear surgery, it is much, much more than a temporal bone dissection course.