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PAST-PRESIDENT'S WORD - Riccardo Luchetti

Dear Colleagues,

A few months have already passed since I concluded my EWAS presidency and I feel that it is time to write this letter. During my 18 month term we have seen our society grow exponentially, in both terms of registered members, as well as, an increase in scientific research. The Strasburg center has trouble trying to satisfy the number of requests for participating in their two annual courses. I think that our society secretary Mathoulin, has difficulty keeping up with our society’s rapid growth and has specifically requested the help of a special secretary (he deserves it, don’t you think? J). Mathoulin says that, with the ever increasing specific requests for courses, additional annual courses are needed and have helped to dissipate these requests, therefore Markgroningen, Barcellona and the Holland courses will be future points of reference.

Remember that our strength lies in the fact that we teach young surgeons and their professional growth will constantly replenish our society’s strength and ensure a  high level of scientific advancement. Our scientific contribution has been requested by various well-known scientific societies such as: National, European and International Societies of Arthroscopy and Hand Surgery. We truly should be proud of these accomplishments. The well-known work of some of our founding “fathers” such as Mathoulin, Levadoux, Livernoux, Fontes, Badia, del Pinal, Lindau, Hearle, has notably contributed to the wonderful growth of our society. The arrival of new young strength has given the society a fresh and harmonious balance. A thanks goes out to Jane Messina, that has constantly and consciously corrected, modified, amplified and directed the EWAS portal, and another thank you for Loris Pegoli who has been instrumental in creating opportunities for our society to have a cultural exchange with our colleagues in the orient (Japan and the Asian Countries).

The Strasburg 2007 and 2008 courses have been splendid. The participants have been enthusiastic to learn and have gone away from these courses with a good sound basis in wrist arthroscopy under the expert guidance of Christophe and his collaborators. For the first time, in November 2007, an advanced wrist arthroscopy course was organized by our society, where knowledgable surgeons in this field of arthroscopy were able to compare and critique various arthroscopic techniques during surgery. It has been a wonderful learning experience for all who participated and courses, such as these, should continue to be organized in the following years.

The Hong Kong course was phenomenal, only too bad Christophe was not there, and unfortunately had other commitments in Brasil. However our society surely made a good impression on the hosts, thanks to the “Colonel” and other EWAS members. The comparison between the oriental and occidental worlds has been a winner! A special thanks to PC Ho for optimal organization and again a big thanks to Pegoli for the organization of the APFSSH session.

I must say another member of our society stands out: and this is Max Hearle. Thanks to him for the organization of the Markgroningen course. In 2007 the course was held in a dry lab but it as been proposed that this year the cadaver lab will continue… but also with a little trip to the lab in Strasburg.

A stand up applause for colleague Andrea Atzei that has published a judicious and important modification to Palmer’s 1987 proposal of triangular ligament injury  classification. This scientific document should remain as a strong point to our society by demonstrating its active and productive scientific contribution in the surgical world. The Whipple award, that was proposed by, Fontes and Mathoulin has been awarded to Atzei in merit to this scientific work.

Two important research surveys have been initiated and followed up by Pederzini and Leclerque. The first of the two surveys is in regards to a mass population survey regarding wrist arthroscopy in Europe for the EWAS group and the other research survey concerns wrist arthroscopy complications. The results have been presented in various international congresses. The second of these two surveys was presented at the European Hand surgery congress (FESSH). We are waiting for the official  publication of these two research articles (I hope soon, and also the additional research survey on arthrogenic cysts of the wrist!) that demonstrate, once again, how active our society is.

We must always remember that arthroscopy is an additional surgical technique for the hand surgeon and before undertaking it one must first be an expert in hand surgery. FESSH, has taken us under their wings, (this reflects the fact that we are first of all hand surgeons) and they have dedicated a specific session in all their European meetings  just to wrist arthroscopy. This has come about thanks to FESSH president Garcia Elias and our most knowledgeable, far-sighted and untiring secretary general Christophe.

Finally, I am sending my best of wishes, for a successful term, to our new EWAS president, Paco del Pinal who will serve for 2 years. His figure is emblematic: plastic surgeon, microsurgeon, hand surgeon with expertise in wrist arthroscopy. He serves on the European editorial  board of the Journal of Hand Surgery and gives important expertise advise regarding scientific publications. Thanks to del Pinal, the original idea of Christophe to publish a book on wrist arthroscopy that will be published by our society has come alive again .

Let’s continue in this direction, it is the right road to walk down!

PS: We can not forget, and I am sure it is felt by all of us, that all which we
do comes with the support and help of our dear ones, that continually back
us up in our weaknesses, wait for us when we are late and share the joy of
our success by their reassuring and supportive words and actions even in
times of difficulties..... We owe our sincerest thanks.

Thanks to All

Luchetti Riccardo

Jane Messina -

(27/08/2008)

MEGA HAND CONGRESS 2008 - CD AVAILABLE

If you are interested to the CD (cost 64 Euros), please contact Mathieu Beustes, matthieubeustes@aol.com

Christian Dumontier - Mattieu Beustes Stefanelli -

(12/05/2008)

Doctor Preissler, as honorary EWAS member.

I have the pleasure to announce you the arrival as honorary member of Doctor Preissler. He was a pioneer of wrist arthroscopy in Germany. His presence with us will strengthen our position.

Welcome to Him.

 Christophe

CM -

(21/04/2008)

Visitors recruitment at Medical Institute of Surgery of Sport in Monte Carlo (N Dreant)

 Dear all,

Let me tell you that it will be my pleasure to accept at the Medical Institute of Surgery of Sport in Monte Carlo (IM2S, website : http://www.im2s.mc=\"\" http:=\"\" href=\"http://www.geap.org/en/%3Ca%20href=\"> http://www.im2s.mc/ "> http://www.im2s.mc ) a visitor.

He will enjoy wrist arthroscopy teaching but also elbow, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle arthroscopic surgery teaching.

Please contact me (dreantn@im2s.mc "> dreantn@im2s.mc ) if a young surgeon is interested.

Nicolas DREANT

http://www.geap.org/en/articles-publications-communiques.php...

Nicolas DREANT -

(07/11/2007)

PRESIDENTIAL LETTER 2007 (Dr Luchetti)

Dear Friends,

It has only been six months since I have been elected as President of the EWAS and I would like to express, to all of you, my happiness about the progress of our group but especially to extend my sincere thanks to our Secretary Christophe, who is the brain and fuel of our society.

Now, I would like to make a brief summary regarding our society’s progress over the past years. 

During the Strasbourg course, we came together to discuss future development strategies for our group in anticipation of the European Hand Congress. More than 30 participants completed the course and are anticipating the following courses that we are organizing. Our Secretary has informed me that there are over 150 candidates waiting to register for the courses! We are happy for these requests and interests, but at the same time, trying to figure out how to meet such numerous demands. Maybe, each expert should organize and set-up their own arthroscopy courses in collaboration with EWAS. A course is now being organized in Barcelona by myself and Dott. Andrea Atzei , as well as, another course which will take place in Poland.

Part of this work has been set-up by Max Haerle in Stuttgard and I thank him for his Wrist Arthroscopy and Live Surgery Course.

I would also like to thank a dear friend, Igo Goldberg who is also the President of the Israelian Society of Hand Surgery. He invited both myself and Christophe to Cesarea as guest speakers for an Arthroscopy Course held in conjunction with the Israelian Society of  Hand and Orthopedic Surgeons. I rediscovered a world, which I had already seen over 20 years ago, but Igo had us seen the ancient cities of Jerusalem, the city of David and Masada all from a different perspective.

An Advanced Wrist Course, post IFFSH Congress, took place in Cairns Australia this March and was so well organized by Bain. The Course was extremely informative and scientifically profitable since it united international experts in this field from America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

The FESSH Congress in Athens (Greece) was also very rewarding considering that the session held on wrist arthroscopy was so full of participants that there was not even enough standing room. A special thanks goes out to all the speakers who presented such highly scientific papers, Tommy, Didier, Paco, Andrea, and once again Christophe, not to mention two “newcomers”  Ferdinando and Darlis. The “face to face” debate between, our secretary Christophe and Marc Garcia-Elias, on wrist arthroscopy versus an open field technique, was so thoroughly explicit and was presented in such a precise and evidence based manner, that it looked at this heated issue from all angles and was addressed with such intelligent humour and with that it will be a Hand Surgery roundtable debate that will go down in history.

The courses that have taken place in February 2007 up until today have made our group grow exponentially! We are truly working well and our presence at scientific congresses, presentations and publications is proof of this. An important award has been given to one of our members, Doctor Andrea Atzei who won the Whipple Award for his presentation regarding the New Type 2B Palmer classification for TFCC Injuries. It is a great satisfaction to know that it will finish (I hope!!) in a great dinner in I feel that it is necessary to say that this exchange needs to be directed towards a younger generation. The already existing experts, that teach our courses, should not only be teachers but also “talent scouts” who look for young promising surgeons who will carry on sophisticated technical and scientific research in this highly specialized field of surgery. On the other hand, the students should also have the right measure of tenacity and technical capacity in order to become our future leaders and teachers. I feel we already have quite a few promising individuals that have just become new members.

A message from Terry Whipple

Dear All,