Welcome

Susan C. Nicolson, MD
Program Chair

Welcome to the CCAS 16th Annual (Virtual) Meeting! 

The COVID Pandemic has and continues to change our world.  If you look, there are Silver Linings amongst the negatives.  One being the 16^th Annual Meeting of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society (CCAS).  With the meeting all virtual, the opportunity exists to distance our meeting from the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia meeting and to hold it on a weekend, Saturday and Sunday, March 20 -21, 2021.  It is our hope that these changes will enable more registrants to partake of what we believe is an exciting program.

The meeting will begin on Saturday morning with the plenary session “Pediatric Cardiomyopathies.”  We are pleased to have experts in the field: Dr. Shelley  Miyamoto from Children’s Hospital Colorado, Dr. Juan Alejos from UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Katsuhide Maeda from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who will discuss the phenotypes and genetics of the disease spectrum as well as some of the cutting edge medical and surgical treatment options with their outcomes.  Dr. Katherine Taylor from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto will discuss the anesthetic considerations for this complex group of patients.

After lunch with the exhibitors and/or your family - a popular session in previous years, the next segment will focus on a lesion, Truncus Arteriosus.  We will have input from the perspective of an echo cardiographer, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist. 

The program on Saturday will conclude with a session featuring the five highest scoring abstracts sharing their work and finally, a moderated poster session.

Sunday morning will start with three Problem Based Learning Discussions (PBLDs) and three Round Table Discussions (RTDs). These small-group, interactive sessions will allow registrants a chance to gain first hand insights from both leaders in the field and colleagues with a variety of clinically relevant topics to choose from. The PBLDs include discussion of a single ventricle patient with acute onset of a neurological deficit, an adolescent transitioning from VAD to heart transplant and a premature infant in the Cath Lab for trans-catheter ductal occlusion.  The RTDs address enhanced recovery after pediatric heart surgery, strategies to minimize acute kidney injury and building and sustaining a successful career in congenital cardiac anesthesia.

Given the role that COVID is playing in our lives and the lives of our patients, we are honored to have two speakers who are experts on COVID in children.  Dr. Todd Kilbaugh will lecture on “How and Why COVID is Different in the Pediatric Population.”  This year’s named lecture is The Arthur Keats Lecture, named after a pioneer in our field.  This year’s Keats lecturer is Dr. Jane Newburger, from Boston Children’s Hospital, a giant in the field of pediatric cardiology, who will share her work on “Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome: Focus on Cardiac Manifestations.”  

Just prior to lunch we will have the award presentations.  This year, for the 1^st time, the CCAS will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to an individual who has had significant impact on the field of congenital cardiac care.  In addition, the 1^st annual Dolly D. Hansen Research Award with be presented.  This award is supported by the Dolly D. Hansen Educational Fund and is intended to promote a research initiative by supporting a junior member of CCAS who will be mentored by an experienced CCAS member.

After lunch, the meeting continues with a session on Regional Anesthesia.  Dr. Naveen Raj from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, will lead off with a lecture entitled “Regional Anesthesia for Sternotomy and Bypass- Beyond the Epidural.”  This will be followed by what we project will be a spirited Pro-Con debate addressing the controversy of whether regional anesthesia should be part of multi-modal pain management for pediatric cardiac surgery.

In final session Drs. Jim DiNardo and David Faraoni will examine some of the recent innovations in congenital cardiac care.   

This program is designed to provide an educational experience to providers of all levels, from new learners to experts whether your practice is caring predominantly or infrequently for patients with congenital heart disease for cardiac or non-cardiac procedures.  We have two moderators for each session and have expanded the time for questions and answers to enable discussion between the faculty and attendees. 

The creation of this program has been a team effort.  I would like to thank my co-chairs Drs. Greg Latham and David Vener, and Dr. Jamie McElrath Schwartz, who has shadowed us.  Their ideas, guidance and flexibility as we planned for on-site, hybrid and virtual platforms was invaluable.  I would also like to thank Drs. Wanda Miller-Hance, Mark Twite, Viviane Nasr and the rest of the CCAS Board of Directors for their insights and support.  Lastly, but most importantly, a huge call out to Kim Battle and her team for the indispensable help up to now and for guidance going forward to ensure the success of our 1^st virtual meeting.

Looking forward to “seeing” you in March!