Tissue Viability Society Success!

Earlier this month (April 2-3rd) the Tissue Viability Society held its annual conference in Peterborough. With over 250 delegates and 46 exhibitors the event was universally considered to be a great success and marks the continued renaissance of the Tissue Viability Society in 2008. The second issue of the re-launched Journal of Tissue Viability was mailed to members in time for the conference and the next issue will feature abstracts from the wide range of presentations delivered during the conference. With a new look to the Journal and a successful conference the Tissue Viability Society has finally shaken off the problems it encountered with its previous publisher and administrator.

What were the conference highlights? Probably the two key sessions were the first presentation of a clinical practice guideline covering seating and pressure ulcers. This is the first time the TVS has worked to produce a clinical practice guideline and the subject matter while being clearly relevant also has implications for several professional groups marking the multidisciplinary nature of the society. The draft guidelines will be available for comment over the early summer and this newsletter will report the full draft guideline in June. The second key highlight was the session exploring whether ischaemia, inflammation or pH was the key element to be controlled if successful wound healing was to be achieved. The speakers - Professor Marco Romanelli (Pisa, Italy), Professor Peter Vowden (Bradford) and Dr Stephen Britland (Bradford) under the experienced chairmanship of Dr George Cherry (Oxford) discussed this issue with much interest and debate from delegates. This session was to have been the cornerstone of an event held to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Tissue Viability Society which unfortunately had to be cancelled following challenges faced by the company recruited to run the event. The success of the session highlights that the cancelled event would have made a significant contribution to discussion of wound healing and it is warming to report that this debate has now finally been able to take place!

Look out for the first announcements for the TVS conference 2009 - these will be coming shortly! Michael Clark Editor

Michael Clark
Editor