NITE Newsletter August 2019

Back from CIRTA in Paris

Dear NITE members,

A year has passed since the last NITE newsletter and it is hence high time for another one.
Like many of you I have gone to the CIRTA meeting held in Paris in July this year and we
met in June at the ESPGHAN meeting in Glasgow.

First of all congratulations to Florence Lacaille and the local organising team for a fabulous
meeting in an amazing venue!
The programme was interesting and stimulating. The meeting marked four years since the
society expanded its vision and started to include topics on the rapidly evolving field of
intestinal rehabilitation. What was once a group of health professionals caring for patients
requiring emergency transplantation of liver and/or intestine, has developed into a
multidisciplinary society caring for adults and children both on long term parenteral nutrition
and after transplantation.
The Cordeliers Campus located at the very center of Paris, at the junction of ‘The Quartier
Latin’ and ‘Saint-Germain-des-Prés’ was ideal and – needless to say- beautiful.

The postgraduate day started with two parallel sessions – one on intestinal transplantation in
adults and children and the other one on home parenteral nutrition. Further topics included
immunosuppression and monitoring of acute rejection, management of the central venous
catheter, medical management of short bowel syndrome, results of intestinal transplantation,
metabolism, IFALD and growth and complications of intestinal transplantation.
The day was completed by welcome reception with food and wine in the beautiful courtyard
of the Cordeliers Campus, where the poster walks also took place.

The main meeting was organised over three days and covered a massive amount of topics
dedicated to the immunology and pathophysiology both of intestinal failure and small bowel
transplantation. The mornings started with video sessions during which difficult cases were
discussed.
Current established and potential for future therapies were presented and remaining
challenges were discussed. The role of organoids and the best animal models for intestinal
transplantation were presented.

Workshops for allied health professionals, on pathology and guidelines for monitoring and
follow up and endoscopy after intestinal transplantation were very well perceived and
completed the days.

During one of the sessions time was allocated for the current proposals for collaborative
research by NITE, which were also discussed during the NITE working group meeting at the
ESPGHAN conference in Glasgow, which took place on 5th June 2019:

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 1. Lorenzo Norsa: The use of video capsule endoscopy after small bowel transplantation
with the aim to determine feasibility, complications, findings and influence on change
of therapy. Retrospective data of all children post small bowel transplant who
underwent a VCE between 2014 – 2018 in Europe.

2. Sarah Mansell: Survey on feeding in children with intestinal failure with the aim to
determine the extend of feeding difficulties in children with intestinal failure

3. Mihai Oltean/Gustaf Herlenius: Multicentre study to evaluate the Gottenburg

endoscopy score in small bowel transplant recipients.

4. Girish Gupte: Dissecting the biomarkers and predictors of rejection following small
bowel transplantation.

5. Lorenzo Norsa :Pediatric Short Bowel Syndrome: Study on the Use of Teduglutide
(TED) in clinical Practice (Real-TEDOPediatric Study):

NITE takes pride in encouraging others to join and participate in collaborative research across
Europe. Please email me with new research proposals, which can be discussed during the next
NITE working group meeting on Wednesday, 3rd June 2020 during the world congress in
Copenhagen (Jutta.Koeglmeier@gosh.nhs.uk)

Next year’s NITE meeting will for the first time be supported by ESPGHAN and organised by
Lorenzo Norsa and his team in the style of masterclass in Bergamo, 1-3 April 2020. The
venue will be the Centro Congressi Giovanni XXIII/Via Papa Giovanni.
Transport from the airport is easy. Both the Committee of Nutrition and the Committee of
Hepatology will support the masterclass with the Committee of Nutrition taking the lead this
time.

The programme is not finalised yet but topics are likely to include :

Epidemiology of intestinal failure and intestinal failure registries

If rehabilitation through PN and new drugs
Non transplant surgery
IF transplantation: new techniques, complications, immunosuppression.
Present and new collaborative studies.

The group remains passionate to improve the care of children and adult patients with
intestinal failure both managed medically and after transplantation.

And finally, I would like to say a thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue to chair
for another 3 years.

With Best Regards

Jutta Köglmeier
London, 30th August 2019
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