Every surgeon knows when to do surgery on a patient but it takes a life time to learn when not to do a surgery, eminent Otolaryngolosist Prof. (Dr.) Ravi Ramalingam said on Saturday.

While most surgeons knew when a patient needed a surgery, it was more important to know when not to, particularly in ENT cases, Prof. (Dr.) Ramalingam, who is Managing Director of the KKR ENT Hospitals and Research Institute, Chennai, said.

Prof. (Dr.) Ramalingam was speaking at the inaugural program of the 3-day conference of the Bhubaneswar chapter of the Association of Otolaryngologists of Odisha held at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) here on Saturday.

The program was also addressed by Dr. Vikash Agrawal, eminent Otorhinolaryngologist in Mumbai and Dr. Krishna Kishore, ENT specialist from Visakhapatnam. The three-day conference, which comprised live surgery demonstrations and talks by experts, began on Friday.

The conference was jointly hosted by Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, SOA’s faculty of medical sciences, and SUM Ultimate Medicare.

The inaugural program was addressed by Brig. (Dr.) Biraj Mohan Mishra, Chief of Medical Services, SUM Ultimate Medicare and Prof. (Dr.) Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital, Prof. (Dr.) Debabrata Panigrahi, President, Bhubaneswar branch of Association of Otolaryngologists of India (AOIBB) and Prof. (Dr.) Kabikanta Samantaray, Secretary, AOIBB.

Prof. (Dr.) Soumya Ranjan Das, Organising Chairman of the conference and Dr. Radhamadhab Sahu, Organising Secretary of the event also spoke. Dr. Biraja Laxmi Acharya was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award on the occasion.