Instructions for Authors

Belgian Surgical Week 2022

Ostend, May 5-7, 2022

SUBMISSION RULES

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION OPENS December 13^th 2021

Please submit your abstract via: http://www.belgiansurgicalweek.be > abstracts > instructions for authors.

Please follow the instructions given online, otherwise your abstract cannot be selected for review.

4 types of abstracts will be considered, so-called ‘tracks’:

• Free papers (oral/poster)
• Case reports (poster)
• Video reports
• BAST-Trainee-Trainer session (BAST session on May 5^th or 6^th 2022: both residents and teachers should be present)

A summary of the guidelines is as follows:

• The abstract language is English
• The text should be not more than 300 words (304 including the paragraph labels, see infra)
• The use of 1 table or 1 graph is possible
• The abstract must consist of four paragraphs labelled: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS
• The text and the title should be free from abbreviations, except those commonly used. It should concisely address the problem and the purpose of the study (OBJECTIVE); how the study was performed (METHODS); the main findings with numerical data and statistical significance (RESULTS); and the principal conclusions drawn from the study (CONCLUSIONS). In case of innovative study protocol or project, abstracts can be send reporting the Background, Objective and Methods of the study.
• The title of the abstract should be printed in CAPITAL LETTERS; the name(s) of the author(s) should be preceded by the full first name (middle name Initial optional) - omit titles.
• The number of authors is unlimited, but all need to be submitted through the author form
• Only co-authors are allowed to present the paper
• Since the abstracts will be judged anonymously, the text should not reveal the institutional affiliation (videos and/or abstracts with affiliation will be rejected).
• Within each track, mark the category which best describes the subject of your abstract

Provided categories:

• Abdominal
• Bariatric/metabolic
• Breast
• Cardio-thoracic
• Colorectal
• Endocrine
• General surgery
• Hepato-bilio-pancreas
• Hernia
• Paediatrics
• Upper GI
• Sarcoma
• Trauma
• Vascular
• Robotic

Abstracts will not be accepted by e-mail or fax. All abstracts should be submitted and posted according to the format and instructions described above no later than the deadline January 30^th 2022 at midnight (23:59:59 CET).

FREE PAPER - ORAL SESSIONS

Free papers are allocated 8 minutes presentation time followed by a discussion period of 2 minutes. Please note that only data projection will be available; videos need to be submitted through a separate track.

FREE PAPER AND CASE REPORT - POSTER SESSIONS

After review by the scientific committee, some free papers might be withheld for the poster sessions. Case report submissions will be considered for poster presentation only.

During the conference, a ‘oral poster session’ will be held where the best 15 posters are given the opportunity for a short oral defense presentation with a 3-slide-powerpoint (excluding the poster itself) during a 3 minute presentation

FREE VIDEO SESSIONS

Free videos are allocated a maximum of 6 minutes with 2 minutes discussion. Video content should be made in the perspective of educating surgeons and members of surgical teams to improve the care of the surgical patient as well as safeguard the standards of care in an optimal practice environment. Live narration in English illustrating the video is required.

Review will be based on a classical written abstract scheme as mentioned above. Together with the written submission, you are required to upload a low quality video (max. 50MB) during the abstract submission process. You can lower the size of the rough file by compressing to eg. compression H.264, lower the resolution to 640x360px and/or lower the frame rate to 15fps (adds a slight stutter, but axes the size to 75%). Also changing bitrate can make you rough file smaller. During the conference, obviously the full quality video needs to be shown.

At the time of the conference, the full quality video files should be presented in advance to the session at the technicians desk to test the movie. Be sure to have a windows compatible file, i.e. with file extension avi, mpeg2 or QuickTime. Note that some avi-movies sometimes may cause incompatibility with the software depending on the encoding process, and that the subsequent software decoder may not be available at the time of the conference.

Video requirement summary:                                                                                                            

- running time of maximum 6 minutes

- Live English narration                                                                               

- Video formats: MPEG2, AVI, QuickTime

BAST-TRAINER-TRAINEE SESSION - ORAL SESSION

These abstracts will be scored by the BAST Board. This BAST session is scheduled on Thursday may 5th 2022. The abstract should describe an interesting case, to be presented by the residents. The trainer should also attend the session and can also present. This is an interactive session with multiple choice questions provided by the presenting resident and with the availability of an electronic voting system. The use of images and videos is encouraged, high quality images are required and a maximum of 60 seconds per video is allowed. Further instructions on presentation will follow once your abstract is accepted. After review some papers might be held for poster/oral poster sessions.

DECISION

All abstracts will be reviewed and scored. The best abstracts are selected based on the average scores and allocated for presentations to the free paper sessions, best poster session, video session, poster session or trainer-trainee session. Selected abstracts are grouped into dedicated sessions, if possible, and moderated by the responsible scientific society or section. Abstract acceptance and program scheduling will be communicated to the corresponding author’s e-mail address before MARCH 29^th 2022.

For your abstract to be included in the final scientific program, it is mandatory to register for the congress and to settle payment as soon as you have received the notification of abstract acceptance, but the latest before APRIL 17th . Registration after this date does not guarantee the possibility to present your work.

Please check the boxes if eligible for awards during the abstract submission process.

Abstracts will be published in an online supplement of the Acta Chirurgica Belgica.

COMPETITIONS

BEST ABSTRACT COMPETITION

The Board of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery (RBSS) has decided to hold this year again a best abstract competition for the two best clinical and the two best basic research papers selected by the Scientific Committee.

The criteria for application for the prizes are as follows:

1. Applicants are not to be older than 35 years at the time of the Belgian Surgical Week.
2. Applicants are to be member of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery, latest by JANUARY 30^th  2022, the date of closure of the abstract submissions.
3. The finalists will be chosen among the four best scored abstracts and will be notified latest by MARCH 29^th 2022.
4. The first author of the paper has to submit a full manuscript by APRIL 27th 2022 which can be used by the jury to analyze the research more in depth before the actual Award session. Failure to submit the manuscript on time will automatically disqualify the applicant for the prize, but not for the presentation.
5. The four selected papers are to be presented as oral presentations in the ‘RBSS Young Investigator Award’ session scheduled (day and time still to be defined) during the  Belgian Surgical Week.
6. The papers will be scored by a jury composed of RBSS Board members and will be based on the scientific quality of both the presentation and of the submitted manuscript.
7. The dedicated presentation time is foreseen for 10 minutes with 5 minutes discussion by a discussant invited by the Board.
8. Publications in the Acta Chirurgica Belgica is strongly encouraged but publications in another journal is also supported by the RBSS.

            The winners of the prize will be announced at the Surgical Night.

         If you wish to participate in the contest, don’t forget to tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract via the conference website of the BSW: www.belgiansurgicalweek.be

BEST ORAL POSTER AWARD

The Board of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery (RBSS) has decided to hold this year again a best oral poster competition. In order to be able to win, your abstract needs to be selected for the oral poster session. The winner will be selected based upon the project and the presentation.

BAST AWARD

The best presentation during the BAST session will be chosen by the audience. Trainee and trainer must be present at time of presentation in order to be eligible to compete.

         If you wish to participate in the competitions, don’t forget to tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract via the asbtract conference platform.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION WILL OPEN DECEMBER 13th 2021 00.00 CET AND CLOSE TUESDAY 14th  2022 23.59.59 CET Brussels Time

(submission deadline extended)!

IFA v202200329

     Call for abstracts:

« Free Paper », «Poster», «Videos » for the 23^rd BSW

Dear Colleagues,

The 23^rd  Belgian Surgical Week will take place in the Ostend Thermae Palace, from Thursday   5^th to Saturday 7^th May 2022.

The scientific theme of the meeting, suggested by the President, and approved by the full Board is

EXPANDING THE FIELD OF SURGERY

We are increasingly faced with technological innovations that challenge our current practice. Until now the trend was to progressively limit the scope of surgical indications at the benefit of other medical specialties. Surgeons have however a unique knowledge of anatomy and a technical expertise that strongly supports their legitimacy to integrate those new treatment modalities in their arsenal. This underlines the need to rethink residents and postgraduate surgical training. Professional surgical organizations have also an important role to play to avoid a future where our role would be limited to rescue surgery.

Increasing the field of surgery relies on surgical innovations but also on new indications provided for example by new neoadjuvant modalities.

This year’s congress will allow to make a review of those advances and hopefully lead to include them in our surgical field.

The scientific committee of the R.B.S.S. will organise Free Paper, video and poster sessions which are not specifically limited to the general theme of the congress. Every topic is most welcome! Case reports will not be selected among the free papers.

Moreover, the possibility to submit a free paper, poster or video for participation in a special “Awards Session” honouring not only the best free paper, but equally the best poster and the best video will be possible. The rules will shortly be published on the www.rbss.be website.

Sessions dedicated to the presentation of free papers, videos and poster separate from the ‘Award Session’ will equally be held.

We think that these meetings are really important, not only for our trainees, but also for every senior member of the R.B.S.S., as they will give the chance for everyone to share his/her experience and they will consequently offer a good opportunity for discussion and confrontation, which is really important for the life of the R.B.S.S.

We thus encourage you to submit abstracts to the following website :

www.belgiansurgicalweek.be

Abstract submission is open between 13rd December 2021 and February 14th 2022 23:59:59 CET << abstract submission deadline extended!>>.

We thank you for your prompt collaboration,

Sincerely yours,

A. De Roover, RBSS’ President,

A. Dili and N. Komen, Scientific Secretaries