December 2020

Dear EHS Members & Friends, 

So here it is December and it is pleasant for me to begin this message with this first excellent news: it is finally the end of this year 2020 which will be remembered as a true annus horribilis… Roll on 2021!!!

There is also and despite everything other good news to conclude this year marked by this global health crisis, which has not spared orthopedic surgeons. If crises make things happen, the least we can say is that this pandemic will at least have taught us to explore other avenues in education, knowledge, and exchanges within our orthopedic community. “Virtual” congresses, in part or in full, have often replaced the traditional “face-to-face” congresses with great success, such as EFORT, which successfully provided “virtual” access to nearly 3000 attendees.

This new channel of exchange between orthopedic colleagues has also further improved the recognition of our EHS as a benchmark for hip surgery in Europe… as evidenced by our participation as co-organizer or guest for various congresses, particularly among our European neighbours, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, but also in mutual events by the fall of this year with other international societies such as SICOT with the “Robotics” webinar*, the CCJR-Winter organized by the US Hip and Knee companies, the MAST course in Thessaloniki with EFORT, without forgetting strong participation in the various publications common to orthopedic companies in connection with impact analyzes and recommendations relating to the Covid-19 pandemic…

Last but not least, one last good news concerns the restarting of our EHS-LILLE2021 web site devoted to our 14th congress postponed to September 9-10 of next year… Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the pandemic will no longer be an obstacle, in particular thanks to the vaccine which we are promised no later than next spring. We have nevertheless taken steps to deal with any eventuality in the event of a problem, and in particular the recourse if necessary, to a partially or totally virtual congress… This is how the program will include the prescribed agenda, and the abstracts already submitted will be taken into account. From now on, authors will be invited to either leave their initial abstract as is, or modify or update them if necessary, or resubmit new abstracts, with a deadline of next January 31… Let’s meet soon on the EHS Lille2021 web site!

In the end, the best we can wish each of us, dear Colleagues and Friends, is that after this terrible year, the next one will in fact be a wonderful annus mirabilis!!!

Warmest regards on behalf of the entire EHS Board,

Jean-Alain Epinette, MD

EHS President

* SICOT Pioneer / EHS: Webinar: Robotics and Other Innovations in THA, 28th Nov 2020: Please complete the pre-webinar poll right now at the following link https://bit.ly/SICOTEHShip1poll

EHS Ambassador of the Month, Pedro Dantas

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great honour to be the National Representative of Portugal and an Ambassador for the European Hip Society. My interest in hip surgery backs to the year of 1999 when I had the privilege of working with Professor James Bruce Richardson at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital. Professor Richardson shared his knowledge and experience in hip arthroscopy, hip resurfacing and impaction grafting for revision arthroplasty. This is my tribute to him.

I would like to present the Iberian Group of Hip Preservation Surgery that was founded by several surgeons from Portugal and Spain with special interest in hip preservation surgery (Oliver Marín-Peña, Marc Tey, Rafael Arriaza, Raul Torres, Luís Pérez Carro, Boris García, Juan Ribera, Jesús Mas, Javier Sanz, Paulo Rego and myself).

The group main purpose is not the creation of a new scientific society, but the formation of a network of surgeons to share knowledge and skills in an area where science is growing extremely fast.

This is an open group that can be joined by all surgeons dedicated or with interested in the area of hip preservation surgery (hip arthroscopy, surgical hip dislocation, femoral osteotomies, periacetabular osteotomies and avascular necrosis). We welcome all that share our mutual interest.

One of the first goals of the GIPCA was the creation of a common registry, with the same data and patient reported outcomes. With the patronage of the Asociación Espanola de Artroscopia a trial version of a web-based registry was designed so surgeons can voluntarily upload the data of their hip preservation cases. Promoting surgeon-to-surgeon visits to contact with special techniques and the interchange of fellows and residents so they can learn from different surgeons the diagnostic approach and treatment plan for several hip conditions have been another of our goals.

The GIPCA should develop a good relationship with the European Hip Society and the European Society for Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy as they share common areas of interests. Also, most of the surgeons of GIPCA are active members of the EHS.

Last September, we had the GIPCA video technique course in Lisbon. In this on-line meeting the limits of innovation and experimental surgery were discussed, as well as the role of consensus in orthopedic surgery and hip arthroscopy registries in Portugal and Spain. Members of the GIPCA presented their areas of research, such as the fluid extravasation in hip arthroscopy, capsular reconstruction, simulation in femoroacetabular impingement, vascularization of the proximal femur, extra articular endoscopic anatomy and consensus in femoroacetabular impingement imaging. The highlight of our meeting was the video techniques session, where several hip preservation techniques were presented and discussed.

In this difficult pandemic time, we had to adapt our work as surgeons and our contributions to medical education and knowledge sharing. In Portugal, we had a severe early lockdown. As such, the number of cases weren’t too high in the first months of SARS-CoV-2 pandemy. For this reason, EHS had planned the 2020 Visiting Fellowship for the end of this year in Portugal. But due to the actual scenario it had to be postponed.

Looking forward to the next 2021 Lille congress to meet friends, learn and share experiences on hip preservation and arthroplasty surgery.

Pedro Dantas, EHS Nat Rep for Portugal