Vets Now’s much anticipated Emergency and Critical Care UK Congress 2024 takes place at Royal Armouries, Leeds on November 7 and 8. This is the 21st annual ECC Congress and it has up to 70 hours of CPD available across six learning streams from an unrivalled line-up of world-renowned speakers.
Efa Llewellyn and David Owen, two of those delivering presentations, tell us what they have in store for delegates.
Efa Llewellyn BVetMed DACVECC DECVECC FHEA MRCVS, ECC Specialist, is a key part of a large team at the University of Edinburgh. Her role includes clinical provision, training of residents and ECC interns, teaching undergraduates and being involved in an active research programme.
David Owen BVMS CertAVP (ECC) MRCVS is one of the highly skilled ECC clinicians at Vets Now’s busy Manchester Hospital, dealing with daytime referral work.
Catch Efa and David speaking together at one of our renowned controversies sessions where they take opposing sides to debate a clinically relevant topic:
Your patient aspirates… Is it pneumonia or pneumonitis? Traditional therapy has included long courses of antimicrobial therapy. More recent thinking suggests empirical antimicrobial therapy may not be necessary. Which is the right approach? The debate continues….
Find out more and register here.
Tell us about your Controversies session
David: The controversy revolves around these cases requiring antibiotics, which is the traditional approach. There’s a debate over whether there is any infection involved or if it’s a chemical injury, depending on the content of what the patient has inhaled. So, is it more of an inflammatory problem as opposed to an infection.
I will be taking the view against using antibiotics. There was a paper published in JSAP 2021 by the team at RVC, which describes a group of dogs diagnosed with an aspiration lung injury that subsequently improved despite the decision not to give antibiotics.
Efa: I won’t be arguing for the traditional four to six weeks of antibiotics, but I will certainly be making the case that they are required. When determining whether antibiotics should be prescribed or not, we should be looking at these patients as a whole. Within an ECC setting, we are often dealing with very sick dogs and cats, and we know that immune dysfunction is common in critical illness. I am aware that many vets attending may be at the advanced practitioner stage, so I want to discuss some new and novel concepts. I’ll bring in the concept of the lung microbiome and how that could potentially influence the need for antibiotics.
How will it be delivered?
David: We plan to approach this with a case-based discussion that may start off with a polarised view. So, I may present a case that has regurgitated and aspirated under anaesthesia and Efa may present a case with signs of sepsis. That way we can underpin our arguments. Following that, we may have the middle ground case that’s more debatable. Previously it’s always been that if you diagnose this then you’d go with antibiotics for weeks. We have moved away from that to the position where there is a true controversy and as a vet you look at cases and debate which is the right approach.
So, what would you want attendees to take away from the session?
Efa: For me the take home would be that following an aspiration event, consideration should be given to the cause of the aspiration event, is it likely to be ongoing, how is the patient systemically, are there concurrent morbidities and what is the previous antibiotic exposure. Based on that you can then make an informed decision as to whether antibiotics are needed, which ones may be needed and for how long.
As well as your joint session you’ll be taking part in several others. Efa can you tell us about those?
I’ll be doing a session called HIIBT – High Interval Brain Training: Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation. We’ll be breaking it down, looking at pathophysiology, what is DIC is and what is happening in both the overt and non-overt forms. We’ll then think about diagnostics before moving on to treatments. That will be with myself, Dan Lewis and Alex Lynch. In Landmark papers for ECC clinician I’ll be reviewing some impactful papers from 2024, really focusing on ones that have good clinical applicability. It can be hard to keep up with current literature, so I’ll look to bring it all together. And I’ll also be taking part in another session called Professional Roles Discussion: Who does what these days?
And what about yours other sessions David?
I’ll be doing a practical CPR session, one each day. The RECOVER guidelines were updated in June, and I’ll be going through a practical review of doing CPR based on those.
I’ll also be doing a session called There’s more than just hartmanns – clear fluids which is related to IV fluid therapy. I’ll be focusing on how we select different fluids in a variety of situations.
What makes the Vets Now Congress so valuable to attend?
Efa: I’ve never been, but I am really excited to attend this year. There is such a great list of exceptional speakers coming from all over the world with wide areas of expertise. And I’m so impressed by how the talks are clinically focused and designed to answer many of the questions ECC clinicians have in practice.
David: Unlike Efa, I have been to almost more Congresses that I can remember. There are many different levels of talks, so if you are fairly new to ECC, it’s nice to be able to come along and learn about some of the basics. When you are more experienced, you can attend sessions that are more advanced. There really is something for everyone.
Also, a lot of emergency vets work alone and it’s nice to socialise with people who do the same job as well as realising that when dilemmas arise, you’re not on your own making those decisions. You’ll realise others are dealing with those same situations and concerns.
