(L-R) Peter Zilla, Alice Grainger-Gasser, Cleonice Mota, Nigel Wilson, Robert Kleinloog, Afksendiyos Kalangos at the RHD Session of the WSCTS

On 19-22 September a session on rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was held at the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the World Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons in Edinburgh. The session was chaired by Afksendiyos Kalangos, Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Geneva, and Assistant Professor and Paediatric Cardiologist Nigel Wilson, from New Zealand.

The session began with the presentation of abstracts themed around RHD: Professor Peter Zilla set the scene with his talk “Tackling the disparities of RHD and the lack of cardiac surgery in the developing world.” Other presentations included those by Nigel Wilson, who outlined the role of echocardiographic screening for RHD, and a presentation given by Professor Robert Kleinloog from Durban, South Africa, who spoke about surgical techniques for rheumatic aortic valve surgery.

Alice Grainger-Gasser, representing the World Heart Federation, gave an overview of advocacy for RHD care, including the TIPS Handbook for implementing RHD control programmes, jointly published by RHD Action Alliance partners the World Heart Federation and RhEACH. 

As a truly global society, the WSCTS is a good forum to progress scientific and advocacy issues related to RHD. Planning is underway to hold a RHD session at the next meeting in Cape Town in 2016, and at all subsequent WSCTS scientific meetings, in order to effectively convene experts to share their knowledge to help eliminate this preventable disease.