International Kidney Transplant Congress” held at Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex

Lahore : Two days conference titled ‘’INTERNATIONAL KIDNEY TRANSPLANT CONGRESS” held under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Farid Ahmad Khan, Chairman & Dean, ShaikhZayed Medical Complex and Prof. Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf, Head Department of Urology & Kidney Transplantation,Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore in collaboration with Transplantation Society of Pakistan (TSP), Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons (PAUS), Pakistan Society of Nephrology (PNS) and University of Health Sciences from 21^st to 22^nd March, 2017 at Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore. Prof. Dr. Farid Ahmad Khan Chairman & Dean Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex was the Chief Guest.

Prof. Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf, Prof. Lionel Rostaing, Prof. Franco Citterio, Dr. Muhammad Raghib HussainNaeemi (Religious Scholar), Prof. Saeed Akhtar, Prof. Dr. Aizaz Mand, Prof. SafderSayal, Prof. Riaz Ahmad Tasneem, Prof. Ahmad Salman Waris, Prof. Hafiz Ijaz Ahmed, Prof. Mumtaz Ahmad, Maj. Gen. Dr. Arshad Mehmood, Dr. Nadir Hussain, Dr. Shahid Abbas, Prof. Bukhsh Ali, Prof. AsadShahzad, Dr. M. Nasir Ibrahim, Dr. Ali Shandar, Dr. Fazal Ur Rehman Khan Niazi, Prof. Arshad Kamal Butt, Dr. Talha Mahmood, Prof. Nauman Tarif, Dr. Mateen Akram, Prof. Shafeeq Ahmed Cheema, Prof. Farkhanda Hafeez, Dr. Hassan other National and International faculty delivered their useful lectures and focused on the latest development in transplantation with special focus on deceased donor transplantation in Pakistan.

While addressing to the participants of the Inaugural ceremony of the congress Chief Guest Prof. Dr. Farid Ahmad Khan Chairman & Dean Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex welcomed foreign speakers Prof. Lionel Rostaing and Prof. Franco Citterio and congratulated Prof. Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf and his team for wonderful effort to organize successful International Kidney Transplant Congress. He said this congress covered different aspects of kidney transplantation; ranging from deceased donor organ transplantation to surgical skills, pre-transplant workup & much more.

He said we will get much to learn from all the learned people and thanked Dr. Raghib HussainNaeemi for taking time out for this congress and said we look forward to learn and get insight to the Islamic perspectives on deceased donor organ transplantation. He said this conference is an important source of Continuous Medical Education and appreciated academic efforts and hoped to see more of these in the future.

He said few years ago Organ Transplantation in Pakistan was considered just an idea! But now with the grace of Almighty ALLAH (S.W.T) and under the supervision of Prof. Prof. Dr. Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf, Head Department of Urology & Kidney Transplantation SZH, more than 800 Successful Kidney Transplants completed in this hospital.

It is a matter of great honor for us that the department of Kidney Transplantation Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore has become the second largest Centre in Public Sector hospitals of Pakistan performing successful kidney transplants. This achievement is unprecedented in the transplantation sector in Pakistan and other developing countries. He emphasized on the need to spread continuous awareness about the importance of organ donation in our society. He also assured to provide help to the Department of Urology & Kidney Transplantation, Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore to enhance the transplantation facilities.

Prof. Dr. Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf (Chief Organizer & Head of Urology and Kidney Transplantation Department) welcomed all distinguished guests and said that we have learned much about transplantation from Prof. Lionel Rostaing and Prof. Franco Citterio. He said despite all problems we have faced, I can confidently say that we have established one of the best departments’ for kidney transplantation in Pakistan. We are one of the leading providers of kidney transplant services in Government Sector for a population of approximately 100 million. We are providing outdoor services twice weekly and our indoor services include a 15 bed ward, a state of the art operation theatre and a fully equipped intensive care unit. However, we do not intend to stop here. To keep up with recent advances in kidney transplantation and to facilitate the patients we plan to start cadaveric donor transplant at Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. This will increase the number of donor kidneys available and we will be able to cadre a greater number of patients.

He added, there is a deficit of trained kidney transplant surgeons in Pakistan and kidney transplantation is a separate fellowship all over the world. It is our aim and desire to start a fellowship program in kidney transplantation so that people of Pakistan would benefit from a greater number of trained surgeons.

In the end Shields and Certificates were distributed among the participants.

Secretary Social Welfare and Bait ul Mal Punjab Mr. HaroonRafique, Secretary Zakat and Ushar Mr. Hassan Iqbal, Prof. Dr. Khalid MasoodGondal Senior Vice President College of Physician & Surgeons Pakistan, were also present on the occasion.