From 28 to 30 October 2015, the XXXII National Conference of the Spanish Society of Paraplegia was organized in Barcelona to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Institut Guttmann.
It was a conference marked by the high scientific level of the papers and communications that were presented, as well as by the attendance of the leading specialists in spinal cord injury, both national and international.
The Scientific Committee of the event was able to bring together a select group of scientific experts from different disciplines, with the common commitment to promote the commitment to innovation, treatment, rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries and other neurological diseases, and also to promote the social inclusion of those who suffer from them.
The Congress was organized around three lectures focused on key aspects of spinal cord injury rehabilitation.
One of the most renowned surgeons in diaphragmatic pacemaker implantation for patients with high cervical spinal cord injury dependent on mechanical ventilation, Dr. Raymond Onders, from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio (USA), described the advantages of the technique, which in most cases achieves a significant reduction in the morbidity and mortality of these fragile patients who are dependent on a respirator. His experience, as well as his research on neurostimulation of the diaphragm, has allowed many patients who were connected for life to a ventilator for breathing to achieve greater survival and improved quality of life after implantation of a specific pacemaker. The communications related to the presentation on the respiratory problems of LM also addressed the management and care required by these injured patients in order to normalize their situation as much as possible and provide them with greater independence and functionality.
The Congress counted during the three days with other well-known and prestigious speakers, highlighting the very interesting contribution made on female sexuality after spinal cord injury, made by Dr. Frederique Courtois of the University of Quebec (Canada), and Dr. Sipski M Alexander of the University of Alabama (USA). Both laid the groundwork for what is known today about the alterations in the sexual sphere of paraplegic women and what treatments and research exist on this complex subject.
On the other hand, Dr. Mitchell Schwaber, director of the National Center for Infection Control in Israel, illustrated the great problem facing hospitals today, especially neurorehabilitation hospitals like ours: the control of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. The morbidity and mortality caused by this type of infection and contamination is extremely high, as are the great costs involved in controlling such pathogenic microorganisms and the difficulties in the day-to-day management of these problems in a hospital like ours, which receives patients infected by multiple multidrug-resistant microorganisms from many other acute care centers. The key to success is based on the preventive measures to be applied to all admitted patients, and on having a good policy for detecting microorganisms susceptible to altering the bacteriological map of the hospital, as well as knowing which measures are the most effective and have the most scientific evidence in order to reduce this serious health problem.
Finally, our group made a presentation on Neuromodulation and, in particular, on Non Invasive Cortical Stimulation. A round table moderated by Dr. Josep Valls, with the participation of a group of speakers with the highest scientific impact factor that currently exists worldwide. Researchers such as John Rothwell from UCL, Institute of Neurology in London, who presented the role of non-invasive cortical or spinal cord stimulation at present, and how it can be developed in the future. Antonio Oliviero, from the Hospital de Parapléjicos de Toledo, presented very encouraging results on this same non-invasive stimulation in treatments outside the hospital, at home. Mar Cortés, from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, focused on her research on tDCS (direct current stimulation), with a view to improving the functionality of the upper limbs of quadriplegics. And finally Hatice Kumru, from the Institut Guttmann, presented her results on rTMS (repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), with a view to improving functionality in patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury. These stimulation techniques have led, in recent years, to a change in the paradigm of neurological rehabilitation, and represent the best way to study the phenomena of neuroplasticity that occur after CNS injury, as well as a new treatment formula for these patients, easy to apply, not very expensive and with a great future when combined with other neurorehabilitation techniques.
The active participation of the specialists who attended this conference, together with the subsequent debate with all the attendees, has served to enrich the knowledge on the therapeutic approach to these pathologies in an interdisciplinary way, as well as to deepen the main innovations in neuroscience. Meetings such as these, in short, represent a way to learn about the challenges and opportunities that the groups of people affected by spinal cord injury or other neurological disabilities face in order to achieve a more inclusive society, a more effective equalization of opportunities and, ultimately, the possibility of improving the quality of life of all people who, at some point in their lives, have suffered a serious disability such as this one.