Dear Members,

The EHS co-organised Masterclass in Arthroplasty Surgery Thessaloniki (MAST) is running for the 9th consecutive year, from 16th – 18th December 2022, and is not to be missed.

As always, the MAST Founder and President, Prof Eleftherios Tsiridis (EHS President Elect), has invited his worldwide orthopaedic peers to bring their professional perspectives from Argentina, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK, USA and of course Greece. USA alone will have teams from Stanford (California), Mayo Clinic (Minnesota), Rush (Chicago) and NYU Langone (New York).

This vibrant international faculty will offer invaluable insights into orthopaedic technicalities for joint arthroplasty and revision by presenting their best research data of the year and showing video surgeries on the topic “Advances in Arthroplasty – What’s new in complex adult reconstruction & new technologies?”.

As always at MAST, there is a competitive spirit. Last year we held the Ortho Olympics and this year, the esteemed faculty will battle it out in teams to win the “Aristotle MAST Award 2022” prize, with the most senior presenter of the winning team being named Visiting Professor by the Dean of the Aristotle University Medical School of Thessaloniki. We will also establish the inaugural “MAST “Endoxa” Consensus Report”, leading to a multi-centre publication.

Attendees can expect exciting presentations and big debates throughout Friday and Saturday, while Sunday will be dedicated to our popular hands on workshops. The course is hybrid and delegates can register to join us from anywhere. Last year we had guests from 27 countries and almost 400 delegates!

Additional hip courses to enter into your new diary for 2023 are:-

  • 10th February 2023: EHS Combined Course with SECCA (the Spanish Hip Society) in Madrid. All the details can be found here
  • 8-10th March 2023: British Hip Society Annual Meeting in Edinburgh
  • 17-19 April 2023: (Postponed from April 2020 & 2022) Barcelona Hip Meeting
  • 20-22 April 2023: Hip Symposium Bern (plus pre-course 19 April 2023) EHS Organised meeting

Meanwhile, we warmly welcome five new members to EHS this month, whose active input as EHS members we look forward to:-

  • Full Member Mr Karuppiah Maha Lingam (Ireland)
  • Full Member Prof Markus Rickert (Germany)
  • Full Member Dr Filippo Troiani (Italy)
  • Young Member Dr Stavros Goumenos (Greece)
  • Young Member Dr Jeroen C F Verhaegen (Belgium)

Below, we get to know our EduCom member Dr Olga Pidgaiska a little better in the last of our Q&A series.

And finally, for anyone who missed it, please click HERE to the Hip International article celebrating 30 years of EHS.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and once again for Peace on Earth.

Assoc Prof Stanislav Bondarenko, EHS Secretary General

Since taking a fellowship from EHS at the Center of Musculoskeletal Surgery at Charité – Virchow Klinikum Berlin, in the septic orthopaedic department, infection cases have become a part of my everyday activity. A multidisciplinary approach, combining the work of orthopeadic-trauma surgeons, infection disease specialists and psychologists shows excellent results in this category of complex patients. One stage procedures at PJI are becoming more and more common.

From the first days of the war in Ukraine, the Center of Musculoskeletal Surgery at Charité – Virchow Klinikum Berlin has been accepting injured patients from Ukraine, both military and civilians. War injuries are accompanied by severe bone and soft tissues defects. But another problem we face are gram-negative multiresistent pathogens (3/4 MRGN) that were found in tissue samples. This has required the development of a new algorithm for the treatment (combination of antibiotics including its local application, multiple wounds revisions and metal fixators changes).

It was a patient 41 y.o. female, physiotherapist with chronic knee PJI. In 12 years almost 50 operations; 4 times sepsis; multiple pathogens (Streptococci, Listeria, Klebsiella oxytoca, Proteus mirabilis, E. faecium , E. faecalis, E. coli, B. fragilis); opiate dependence. The multidisciplinary team established the diagnosis: “Munchausen syndrome”, a psychiatric problem, when the patient injected pathogens by herself in the knee joint to get attention to her personality.

…those which were successfully cured after infection.

It can be a case with a combination of severe bone loss from both the acetabulum and femur sides caused by metallosis (trunionosis) in combination with infection.

I found this article “A systematic approach to CT evaluation of non-arthritic hip pain” from EFORT open reviews by Author(s): Andrew J Curley, Ethan R Ruh, Amisha Shah, Ashley E Disantis, April Krivoniak, Craig S Mauro, and Michael P McClincy Pages: 653–662.

One of the tasks I deal with at present is learning the German language.