The 18th annual Paediatric Orthopaedics Conference of India and North America concluded in the city on Monday.

The conference dealt with two major issues: how to deal with neglected conditions in paediatric orthopaedics and spinal deformities in smaller children. Senior paediatric orthopaedic surgeons Kay Wilkins and Scott Mubarak from the USA were among others who attended the conference from all over the world.

“Orthopods should be able to diagnose and treat conditions which otherwise go neglected and realised much later, leading to crisis,” said paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Sandeep Patwardhan who is also the conference organising secretary.

The first day was about interactive workshops on “cerebral palsy”, “paediatric trauma” and “sports medicine” under the expert guidance of paediatric orthopaedic surgeons Benjamin Joshep, Ashok Johari and Wilkins while the second and third day had “scientific sessions” by young orthopaedics.

The last day’s session was on “advanced interactive workshop on early onset of scoliosis and chest deformities”. The session was supervised by spine surgeons Ketan Khurjekar, Kit Song and Richard Schwend.

Khurjekar, the head of spine services at Sancheti Hospital, stressed on the importance of diagnosis and treatment of the early onset scoliosis in children less than five years in order to alert orthopaedic surgeons who seem to still be “sleep-walking” on the matter while the aftermath of the global crisis is still on.

Last day included hands on workshop on Growth Rods, VEPTR and SHILLA which are the latest technique in treating EOS (early onset scoliosis).