Croatian doctors attend UEFA FDEP 1 Workshop

HNS Medical Symposium held in Zagreb

27.01.2020.

Photo by: Drago Sopta/HNS

The Regular Medical Symposium of the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) was held on January 24 and 25 in Zagreb. Doctors from the medical staffs of all Croatian national teams and from clubs of the Croatian Women’s First Division and Croatian Men’s First and Second Divisions took part in this symposium.

The Medical Symposium was opened by the president of the HNS Medical Committee Prof. Dragan Primorac, MD, PhD. The course participants were also greeted by the third vice-chairman of the UEFA Medical Committee Prim. Zoran Bahtijarević, MD, and by Prim. Silvija Hunyadi-Antičević, MD, who spoke on behalf of the Croatian Resuscitation Council.

Foto: Drago Sopta/HNS

This symposium is one of the numerous educational activities which the HNS Medical Committee regularly organizes for Croatian football doctors. As part of the Medical Symposium, HNS also takes medical professionals working with Croatian football clubs and national teams through the UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme (FDEP). The logistics and organization of this year’s symposium were overseen by Tomislav Vlahović, MD, who is the secretary of the HNS Medical Committee and a licensed FDEP instructor.

FDEP is a leading educational programme for doctors working in football. The course’s cascaded format encourages national associations to also hold workshops for their football doctors, which the HNS Medical Committee has been doing for a number of years. HNS is one of only four European FAs which has held all three of the FDEP workshops. After successfully holding a FDEP 3 workshop in 2019, HNS once again offered the vitally important FDEP 1 course (focused on trauma and medical emergencies) in 2020.

Foto: Drago Sopta/HNS

Croatia U-21 doctor Boban Dangubić, MD held a lecture on assessing player consciousness on the pitch, while his colleague from the medical staff of the Croatian U-21s Mislav Rakić, MD spoke on the topic of injury assessment. A demonstration of basic life support using an automatic external defibrillator was also given.

Along with Dangubić, Rakić and Vlahović, the lecturers included doctor of the Croatian men’s senior team Zoran Bahtijarević, Croatia U-21 doctor Nino Brajković, MD, Prof. Mario Strarešinić, MD, PhD, and MDs Matej Bura, Fabijan Čukelj, Želimir Orkić, and Ivan Vuksan.

The doctors who attended the symposium also participated in a number of practical exercises on basic life support, immobilization, proper procedure when dealing with traumatic head injuries and loss of consciousness in players and the protocol for moving players off the pitch.

Day 2 of the symposium included further presentations on the topic of concussions and the consequences of head injuries in football (held by Bahtijarević), as well as additional practical workshops on airway obstruction and anaphylactic shock, epileptic seizures, open wounds and loss of consciousness. The doctors finished the course by taking a written exam.

Foto: Drago Sopta/HNS

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