I knew Id arrived at the Forum venue when the taxi pulled up outside the lovely Victorian Westfield Hotel, Westcliffe on Sea and rather than the sound of the waves I heard the familiar sound of Steve Worrollo.
 
Keith and Siobhan Thomas hosted and presented the 3rd International Facial & Body Prosthetics Conference. It was the first one at which 'free paper' presentations have been held.    The format of this programme was refreshingly different in that, like a seminar, throughout the lectures there was the opportunity to question the presenters at any time. This resulted in many quick fire open question sessions between Keith Thomas, Steve Gray, Stephan Kritzinger and Julie Jordan Brown whilst other delegates hastily made notes.
 
What was interesting at this Forum was how presenters approached problems in very different ways using a variety of materials and techniques to gain excellent results, with all cases presented in great detail.
 
All the presentations were outstanding however my personal favourites were Julie Jordan Brown's, Chandrashekar Chawan's custom made ocular prosthesis (particularly with limited resources ) and Kuldeep Raizada's innovative method of curing an artificial eye prosthesis using PMMA cured in 12 minutes leaving no residual monomer.

Graham Blackbeard & Heather Coombes bio engineering presentation was fascinating and as they also had a trade stand we were able to tryout all the hardware. Graham has had a interesting career to date that included working on the first cochlear implants and designing heart valves prior to his involvement with Southern Implants. The Branemark centre in Johannesburg uses Southern Implants (http://www.southernimplants.com) and I believe that Branemark himself has great respect for Southern Implants.
 
Wendy Smith introduced the ‘Breast Dressed Programme’, which included various techniques of custom breast construction. I found this of particular interest and would hope that it will encourage more MPT's to offer this worthwhile service within their units.  Her impression technique of using plaster bandage then instructing the patient to put on a bra was a great idea. The silicone was applied using the ‘drip technique’ in layers enabling the easy insertion of colour and internal veins within the underlying layer. The prosthesis were filled with foams, fibres and occasionally gels resulting in a lightweight comfortable prosthesis. Some  prosthesis were then tattooed with a design of the patients choice, Wendy commented that this was the one decision the patient could make for herself, almost a way of turning trauma into art.
 
The topic of post mastectomy prosthetic rehabilitation was further enhanced by Siobhan Thomas's presentation on surgical tattooing and cosmetic camouflage. The presence of Dawn Forshaw's trade stand 'Finishing Touches' who,  since their formation in 1993 are regarded as leading specialists in the field of micro pigmentation. Dawn offers customised training for all areas of medical tattooing within Trust Hospitals and commented that an increasing number of plastic surgeons will no longer perform breast reconstruction without being able to provide NAC procedures to finalise the treatment. In the same vein medical tattooing for cleft palate patients offers an immediate aesthetic answer by recreating the vermillion border. Medical tattooing should be considered as an excellent way of enhancing existing MPT services, several members have a well established service within this field such as Jane McPhail at Wiston Hospital in Liverpool and Matt Pilley in at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Dawn may be contacted on http://www.wakeupwithmakeup.co.uk. Having just read their advanced course literature I'm debating whether to have the wrinkle therapy treatments!

Christian Camerer deserves a mention regarding the miniaturised actuation systems for active prosthesis (real time eye blinking), and although it has a limited application, it is a remarkable piece of research.
 
Jan De Cubber described a completely new technique for the production of facial prosthesis (direct modelling in high consistency HV, ETR silicones), and the development of the functional joint mechanism and modular joint mechanism using the Southern Implant system. This is cutting edge research and delegates appreciated how fortunate they were to see these discussed in detail.
 
Keith has also written a new textbook “The Art of Clinical Anaplastology”, containing 362 pages and including over 900 colour illustrations written in a clear, concise and easy manner. It is published as a manual for easy reference and presents state of the art materials, and techniques used to create high quality facial and body prosthesis.

Further information is available at http://www.theartofclinicalanaplastology.moonfruit.com

Further conference images available on request from me.

Liz Gill
October 2006

Pictures by Liz Gill

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