July 2021

Dear EHS Members & Friends, 

VEC, VEC, VEC… !!!

In less than 5 days, an event of great importance will be held in our lives as surgeons, whether you are a specialist in the Hip or any other surgical specialty: it is the VEC, that is to say the “Virtual EFORT Congress” from 30th June to 2nd July… Here we are in a new era of scientific communication. Whether these congresses are “pure virtual” or “hybrid”, remote participation will now become the rule, with or without a pandemic, and preferably without, of course!

We, members of the European Hip Society, must absolutely participate in this VEC… We are part of this large orthopaedic community and the EHS, as a “sub-specialized” society, must participate in the achievements of this federation of orthopaedic societies. It’s important scientifically, it’s crucial politically. If we want to influence certain decisions at the European level, we must speak with one voice, and that this voice is audible to be heard.

As an example of this necessary pooling of the specificities of each of the subspecialty societies, it is necessary to cite the “EFORT Specialty Society Standing Committee – ESSSC ”, which is currently working on setting up a common tree structure for all the orthopaedic specialties to get official recognition of the status of orthopaedic surgeon at European level… This is just one example among other projects such as National/European implant registries or the response to various European directives directly impacting our surgical activity.

If any other sign of the interest of this VEC in a large European framework was needed, it suffices to underline the presence of Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, as a distinguished guest at the opening of the EFORT during its “Opening Première” one day prior to the start of the scientific sessions: the subject of her speech could be “At its core, the European Green Deal is very concrete: […] How can the O&T profession contribute to the change and shift towards preventive value-based care?”.

So, again and again, get ready now and do not miss the opportunity to register for the largest European cross-border Orthopaedics & Traumatology Congress!

On our side, the preparation of our 14th Congress of the European Hip Society, on Friday and Saturday September 10th-11th in Lille (France) is very well launched… Registrations are already open and more than 90 speakers are ready to propose to all surgeons the best of hip surgery, from basic knowledges “revisited” to the most exciting aspects of the most advanced techniques!… Everything is already on the Lille EHS 2021 website, we are waiting for you!

More than ever, whether it’s the VEC next week or the EHS Congress in September, let’s carry our motto very high: “Bringing Orthopaedics Surgeons Together!”…

On behalf of the entire EHS Board,

Jean-Alain Epinette, MD

EHS President

Ambassador of the Month, Prof Pascal-Andre Vendittoli

Dear Colleagues and friends,

As French Canadian, I am very honoured that Canada is the guest nation of the EHS this year. I work as a professor of surgery and clinical researcher at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital / University of Montreal and in private practice at the Duval Clinic. My principal research activities are the evaluation of new surgical techniques, new technologies and new orthopedic implants, mainly in the framework of prospective and randomized trials. With Dr Charles Rivière, I am the co-founder and President of the Personalized arthroplasty society: www.personalizedarthroplasty.com Over the years, my goal has remained unchanged: offering orthopedic patients a forgotten hip and knee joint.

Working in a supra-regional center of expertise, we take care of secondary and tertiary cases in the fields of arthroplasty. Our lower limb arthroplasty unit handles the treatment of young patients with secondary arthritis, complex revisions and joint infections. Our group developed expertise over the last 20 years using different types of large diameter head hip arthroplasty (resurfacing, metal-on-metal, dual mobility or ceramic-on-ceramic). Since 2011, we have performed more than 3,000 large diameter head ceramic on ceramic THAs. In 2009, Dr Lavigne and I won the “John Charnley award” from the American Hip Society. We received this honour for a RCT demonstrating no significant difference in the patients’ gait between subjects with a hip resurfacing a LDH THA and persons without a hip replacement. Subjectively, our patients with LDH THA report a mean forgotten joint score of 88.5, and 74-76% reported their hip as “natural or without limitation whatsoever”. My quest to offer a forgotten hip is progressing well.

Since there is a limited marginal gain on the mid and long-term THA outcome, my actual professional goal is to improve early postoperative recovery and minimize the impact of surgery. Over the last 4 years, I worked on the development of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol favouring ambulatory surgery. We improved the patients’ outcome to an unexpected level, reduced the adverse event rate by 50%, and sped up their recovery dramatically.

I truly hope that the sanitary conditions will allow us to meet in person. I have been looking forward to visiting my friends in Lille for years. I am also looking forward to hearing the excellent presentations from the EHS members, and I will do my best to contribute to the success of 2021 Lille meeting and be a successful EHS Ambassador.

Prof Pascal-Andre Vendittoli