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SICOT e-Newsletter

Issue No. 46 - July 2012

Editorial by Marcos Musafir & Tony Woolf - Bone and Joint Decade (BJD)

• The Bone and Joint Decade (BJD)

There are millions across the globe who are affected by musculoskeletal conditions (MSC’s), yet the WHO Global status report on non-communicable diseases 2010 confines itself to the four NCD’s with high mortality: cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and chronic respiratory. There is scarcely a mention of musculoskeletal conditions, or any other non-communicable disease with low mortality and high morbidity rates. Read more...

SICOT Events

• Scientific Programme

Programme at a glance is available to download here.
Read more about the Plenary Speakers here.

• Registration

Online registration is open! Register here...

• Awards

Click here to find out more about the awards which are granted to young surgeons to help them attend the Conference.

• Accommodation & Tours

Special prices and benefits are available for conference participants. Please don't delay booking your accommodation until the last minute. Book your accommodation and tours of Dubai here.

• Exhibition & Sponsorship

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to promote your products and services to leading international orthopaedic surgeons, traumatologists and specialists in related fields. Read more...

Please visit the SICOT website regularly for updated information about Dubai OWC 2012.

Orthopaedics in Disaster Areas

• Trauma Skills Training at the Height of War
  by David Nott

At the beginning of March of this year, I was asked to go to Misrata, Libya, by Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) but due to the uncertain security, the mission was postponed until the end of March. A team was put together consisting of two surgeons, two anaesthetists, an emergency department doctor, a scrub nurse, two general nurses and a logistician. The team left Malta in a fishing vessel and arrived at the port of Misrata some 17 hours later. The port entrance was heavily guarded by rebel forces and we very slowly entered the deserted harbour, the damaged buildings bore witness to the heavy bombardment over the previous few weeks. Significant logistical support provided by the headquarters in Paris ensured that all the warring factions knew that MSF was coming to provide humanitarian aid to the civilian people. Our mission was to provide surgical relief to the medical staff at the two trauma units created in the centre of the city in what were originally Al Hickma and Al Abbad private clinics taken over by clinical staff after the main hospital had been destroyed. There had been intense fighting around Tripoli Street and many people had been killed and wounded in the previous few days including the renowned British war correspondent Tim Fetherington. There was continual bombardment of the city by forces loyal to the government and tank shells, rocket propelled grenades and grad missiles constantly rained on the city. The front lines were around 12 km from the main hospitals at this time. Read more...

SICOT Global Network for Electronic Learning - SIGNEL

• Article of the Month  

Fellowship News

• Report of the "SICOT meets SICOT" Fellowship at the University Hospital Motol in Prague, Czech Republic
  by Mandar V. Agashe 

I would like to thank SICOT for awarding me this fellowship, which was a very useful learning opportunity for me. I received an email from Prof Tomas Trc, who is the Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University Hospital, Motol, informing me that I had been awarded this prestigious fellowship. After confirmation of the period of the fellowship, I started making my travel plans with the great help of Prof Trc and his colleagues, as well as Ms Linda Ridefjord from the SICOT Head Office. Read more...

Training Around the World

• Orthopaedic Training in Hong Kong
  by Chun Hoi Yan

The orthopaedic training system in Hong Kong shares a lot of similarity with the United Kingdom. It includes two years of basic surgical training and four years of higher orthopaedic training. Medical students need to spend at least five years in the medical school. Afterwards, they will go through one year of internship, during which they will rotate through four different medical specialties, including internal medicine and surgery. After that, they are given their full license for practice. Read more...

Worldwide News

• Failure rates of stemmed metal-on-metal hip replacements: analysis of data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales
  Comment by Aad Dhollander

Recently, controversy has arised about the use of metal-on-metal hip replacements. In February 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health communication about hip replacement components that have both a metal ball and a metal socket (metal-on-metal hip devices). In this article, data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales - established in 2003 and the largest arthroplasty database in the world - were used to assess if metal-on-metal bearing surfaces lead to increased implant survival compared with other bearing surfaces in stemmed THRs. Read more...

Industry News

• SERF Dedienne santé

Editorial Department

Editorial Secretary: Hatem Said
Editorial Production: Linda Ridefjord
Editorial Board: Ahmed Abdel Azeem, Syah Bahari, Kamal Bali, Bassel El-Osta, Anthony Hall, Maximilian Rudert

Rue Washington 40-b.9, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 648 68 23 | Fax: +32 2 649 86 01
E-mail: edsecr@sicot.org | Website: www.sicot.org

Disclaimer: Some of the views and information expressed in this e-Newsletter include external contributors whose views are not necessarily those of SICOT. SICOT is not responsible for the content of any external internet sites.

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