The 77th Annual Meeting of American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) and Clinical Congress of Acute Care Surgery and 4th World Trauma Congress in San Diego, CA, USA, from October 25th to 29th, 2018, were the largest trauma congresses ever held in the USA. Counting with 1.640 attendees, including 250 from 40 countries, the event brought up lots of discussions and controversial topics in Trauma, Critical Care and Emergency Medicine.

Gustavo Pereira Fraga, coordinator of the Division of Trauma Surgery of School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of University of Campinas (Unicamp), participated as international speaker with lectures and moderation in three sessions: “Yellow May - Trauma Prevention Program”; “Trauma Leagues: A Novel Option to Attract Medical Students to a Surgical Career”; and “TXA Beyond CRASH2 - Controversies and the Global Perspective: The Brazil and South America’s perspective on TXA use”.

Fraga was nominated member of AAST International Relations Committee until 2020 and participated as member of the Executive Committee of the World Coalition for Trauma Care (WCTC) at the meeting when it was voted for Brazil (Salvador, BA) to hold the 7th World Trauma Congress in 2024. Fraga, as Past-President of the Brazilian Trauma Society (SBAIT), mentioned the support of Raul Coimbra, president of the WCTC, to bring the congress to Brazil again (both organized the first WTC in Rio de Janeiro, in 2012).

The Division of Trauma 4th Year Resident Vitor F. Kruger received an AAST Scholarship covering the flight, hotel, congress inscription, and food (nearly US$3,000) and had the opportunity to present two oral presentations (“Clinical, Laboratory and Ventilatory Predictors for Intra-Abdominal Hypertension in Septic Shock ICU Patients” and “ATLS® Protocol Adherence by General Surgery Residents in the Emergency Room: A Simulation-Based Appraisal”) and one electronic poster (“Traumatic Diaphragmatic Hernia: How to Improve the Diagnosis?”, topic of the ongoing Kruger’s master thesis).

After the Congress, Kruger travelled to Toronto, Canada, for a 3-weeks observership at Saint Michael Hospital with Sandro Rizoli, former student and resident of Unicamp, and current professor of University of Toronto, who attended the meeting in San Diego too.

Fraga, Kluger, and Bruno M. Pereira, assistant surgeon of Division of Trauma Surgery and current president of the World Society of the Abdominal Compartment (WSACS), participated as co-authors in the paper “What is the Best Surgical Management for Duodenal Trauma? A Panamerican Trauma Society (PTS) Multi-Center Trial”, presented by Paula Ferrada, from the Virginia Commonwealth University, in Virginia, PA. This paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of Trauma Care Surgery.