The single theme workshop on “Neonatal Neurological Disorders” got off to a flying start in the auditorium of the Advanced Paediatric Centre, PGIMER. The honourable director of PGIMER, Prof Vivek Lal, inaugurated the workshop. Prof ON Bhakoo, former head of Pediatrics and Neonatology at PGIMER, also graced the inaugural function. Prof Vivek Lal — himself an accomplished adult neurologist — complimented the Neonatology Unit on conducting a workshop on a very challenging topic. He narrated several interesting anecdotes from his own training days to highlight the importance of combining sound clinical knowledge with modern investigations. Prof Praveen Kumar, Head of the Department of Pediatrics and chairperson of the workshop, spoke about the importance of focused workshops of this nature and said that these workshops were extremely popular among delegates because of their hands-on nature. Prof Sourabh Dutta, the organising secretary, mentioned that this was the 10th single theme workshop conducted and each time the delegates played a role in choosing the theme for the next workshop. Dr Jogender Kumar, the joint organising secretary, thanked the entire team in his vote of thanks.
The scientific proof proceedings of the workshop started with a talk on normal neurological examination by Dr Supreet Khurana, in which she showed many videos of newborn babies to demonstrate the correct techniques. Dr Naveen Jain, an expert from Trivandrum, spoke about the approach to a newborn baby who presents with brain dysfunction. Prof Sourabh Dutta delivered a talk on the pitfalls in the diagnosis and treatment of meningitis and its complications in newborn babies. Prof Deepak Chawla spoke about the diagnosis and staging of brain damage due to asphyxia at the time of birth and how to treat selected patients with whole-body cooling or brain cooling. Dr Naveen Prakash Gupta from Delhi delivered a lecture on bleeding inside the brain of preterm babies or damage to the white matter in the brain. Dr Chirag Ahuja taught the delegates about how to read MRI scans and CT scans of both mature and premature babies.
The highlight of the first day of the workshop were three practical hands-on sessions through which the delegates rotated by turn. They were shown how to actually administer whole-body cooling, to perform head ultrasound in newborn babies to rapidly diagnose problems, and to interpret EEG (brain electrical waves) in neonates.
The practical workstations were followed by group discussions on three real-life case scenarios which involved newborn babies who had brain problems of various kinds. Delegate to s got a chance to interact one-on-one with experts in the field.
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