Our dearest Roberto Giacometti (EHS President 2000-2002) passed away 29th March 2023.

As a very young surgeon, he was one of the founders of the Galeazzi Orthopaedic Institute in the mid-1960s and became soon a point of reference for hip surgery, which he practiced with great technical skills and scientific expertise in both prosthetic and conservative surgery.

Collaborating with Italian and foreign colleagues and technicians and with first-rate national and international companies, thanks to a perfect mix of knowledge and geniality, he conceived and developed implant models, some of which later became international standards: innovative acetabular cups such as the “Polar” cup in the 1980s, the ET stem of the Versys System in the 1990s, the 36mm ceramic-ceramic coupling in the year 2000. And not only hip replacements: among the first in Italy, he performed periacetabular osteotomies, open reduction of SCFE according to Dunn.

An openness and a tendency to new goals that, together with the acknowledged international consideration, led him to hold prestigious positions, from the Presidency of our EHS in 2000, to that of the Italian Hip Society, from the Board of EFORT to being one of the Italian members of the International Hip Society, from scientific assignments in national and international registries committees to those in SIOT. He presented at major scientific congresses, forging friendship and relationships with the most important institutes and colleagues who still greet him with affection. With a gift that is hard to find in our world nowadays: the art of leaving at the right time. In 2011 he gradually retired until he stopped working completely.

But what we remember him most for are his paternal availability to discuss the most complex cases, the wise indications, the caution of choices. Of him will always remain vivid in our memory the intellectual honesty and readiness of arguments, the availability to be questioned and the subtle irony, the noble loyalty of spirit and generosity.

Thank you, Roberto!