In a milestone celebration of grit, skill and compassion, the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery at AIIMS Bhubaneswar marked its 10th anniversary with a high-profile National CME and Live Surgical Workshop on “Secondary Procedures in Brachial Plexus Injury.”
The two-day event on 21-22 August brought together more than 100 surgeons and specialists from across India, spotlighting a decade of transformative care that has restored lives and limbs for thousands.
The department’s 36-bedded modern Burn Centre stands as one of Eastern India’s most advanced facilities for comprehensive burn management. Over the past ten years, it has successfully treated more than 1,500 burn patients — many in critical condition — from Odisha and neighbouring states, while also supplying skin allografts to other institutions. Beyond acute care, the team has performed over 7,000 reconstructive and corrective surgeries. These include more than 500 microsurgeries, 300 brachial plexus reconstructions, 300 congenital anomaly corrections, 200 Smile Train cleft surgeries, over 250 RBSK cases and around 3,000 trauma procedures.
AIIMS Bhubaneswar Executive Director Dr. Ashutosh Biswas congratulated the department, praising its contributions and expressing confidence in even greater achievements ahead. Chief guests Dr. Sambit Patra, MP from Puri, and Padmashree Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, former AIIMS Bhubaneswar Director, joined the celebrations. The programme was led by Dr. Sanjay Kumar Giri, Head of the Department, with support from senior faculty and administrators, including Dr. Dillip Kumar Parida, Dr. Manaswini Mangaraj, and others.
Looking forward, the department plans to establish specialised clinics, expand simulation training and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, initiate hand transplantation, and set up a Skin Bank and Tissue Transplantation Unit. The ultimate goal is to elevate the Burn Centre into a true Centre of Excellence focused on advanced treatment, research, rehabilitation and training.
The scientific sessions featured expert lectures, live surgeries, video demonstrations, and a quiz on restoring function after brachial plexus injury. As the department enters its second decade, it continues to turn devastating injuries into stories of recovery — one precise surgery at a time.
