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REFACE

he 4th Congress of The Andalusian Society of Organ and Tissue

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HE Congress brought together over 250 specialists inthe field of organ and tissue transplantation from all

ver Spain.On the Inauguration Day, the previous president of the

ATOT, Dr. Miguel González-Molina, was named Memberf Honor. He was the founder and driving force behind thisew scientific society, formed to improve the diffusion ofnowledge in the world of organ transplants. He himselfpened the Congress with a presentation about lipids andrgan transplantation.Various Update Groups were held over two intensive

orking days. The first was related with “Strategies toncrease the number of organs available for transplant”, athich are analysis was made of the growth in the rate ofrgan donation in Spain and in Andalusia. One of the mainactors contributing to this growth has been the continuededuction in the loss of organs due to family refusal.dditionally, the rise in the mean age of the donors hasecessitated protocolized studies to guarantee the viabilityf organs from expanded criteria donors, in order to reducehe uncertainty surrounding primary failure, malfunction oreath of the recipient. Another Group “Advances in kidneynd liver transplantation” afforded an up-to-date and crit-

cal vision of organ function among retransplant cases,

2006 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.60 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710

ransplantation Proceedings, 38, 2363 (2006)

ecipients with Hepatitis C virus infections or hepatocarci-oma.Finally, the Group of presentations - “New technologies

n the transplant world” - included conferences rangingrom MARS type purification systems to novelties in arti-cial circulation systems, including living donor kidneyransplantation performed by laparoscopy.

Such renowned speakers as Sir Roy Calne, Rene Adams,anuel Pascual and Bertrand Kasiske took part in these

essions, along with prestigious experts from Spanish trans-lant institutions. Moreover, 60 oral and 141 poster presen-ations were presented by Spanish professionals involved inransplantation activities.

The Closing Day witnessed the awarding of prizes for theest presentations delivered by medical residents and theiralda Prize, presented by the Andalusian Liver Trans-

lant Association, in recognition of the best study in theeld of liver transplantation.Finally, I would to invite all transplantologists to partic-

pate in the 5th Congress of our Society to be held in March008.

Angel BernardosPresident

Andalusian Society of Organ and Tissue Transplantation

(SATOT)

0041-1345/06/$–see front matterdoi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2006.09.003

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