Talking pineapple power at PAPSCon 2023 | News

In February, specialists from the Regional Burns Unit at Pinderfields Hospital were invited to speak at PAPSCon 2023, the Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgery annual conference in Bahawalpur, Pakistan to talk about the Trust's expertise and experience in enzymatic debridement.

Enzymatic debridement is a technique for treating a burn wound. The treatment involves using an enzyme paste made from a pineapple plant to remove damaged tissue. Typically, the paste is combined with a dressing that is changed regularly. The paste softens the tissue and allows for the damaged tissue to be removed when the dressing is removed with minimal damage to viable tissue.

Mr Umair Anwar and Dr Brendan Sloan were invited speakers providing education and advice on enzymatic burn debridement, something Mid Yorkshire Hospitals has a great deal of experience with.

Mr Umair Anwar, Consultant Plastic Surgeon at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“We are very proud to be one of the global specialists in enzymatic debridement which has been shown to be a more precise way to excise burn wounds with decreased bleeding, decreased hospital stay and decreased need for skin grafting. All that is usually possible without even taking the patient to theatre.

Dr Brendan Sloan, Consultant in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“Pinderfields has been at the forefront of adopting this technique and is possibly the largest volume user of enzymatic debridement in the UK.

“The burden of burn injuries in Pakistan is huge; much greater than what we see in the UK, and what we saw while visiting the centres in Multan, Islamabad and Rawalpindi was very impressive - both in terms of volume, and in terms of outcome.

"There is clearly a great deal we can learn from each other, and the hope is to establish regular links between the centres. The potential for collaboration, both in research, and in training, is extremely exciting, and should be of benefit to patients in both countries.”

Since their return to the UK, Mr Umair Anwar and Dr Brendan Sloan have set up collaborative groups with two of the Pakistan centres and are already collecting data to look at similarities and differences between the services.

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of collaborative projects, with an intention to develop an exchange program to allow clinicians to gain experience in different healthcare systems.