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No. 100 August 2006
NewsletterNewsletter
SICOTSOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE de CHIRURGIE ORTHOPÉDIQUE et de
TRAUMATOLOGIETHE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY AND
TRAUMATOLOGY SICOT
Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de
TraumatologieInternational Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and
Traumatology w w w. s i c o t . o r g
Evidence based orthopaedics 2
Editorial by Dr Chad Smith 3
Country to country:About the earthquake in Indian Kashmir 4
On the web: Another functionality of the new SICOT website 7
Committee life: CSAC 8
Young surgeons: SICOT Fellowship in Assiut University 9
Worldwide news: SICOT Diploma Examination by a winner 11
In this issue
Another functionality of the new SICOT website:the on-line
discussion forum about SICOT/SIROT abstracts
Another functionality of the new SICOT website:the on-line
discussion forum about SICOT/SIROT abstracts
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 1
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Replacement arthroplasty versusinternal fixation for
extracapsular hip fractures in adults
page 2
Background: Internal fixation, commonly used forextracapsular
hip fractures,may fail particularly in uns-table fractures.
Replacement of the hip using arthro-plasty,often used for
intracapsular fractures,has beenused as an alternative.
Objectives: To compare replacement arthroplastywith internal
fixation for the treatment of extracap-sular hip fractures in
adults.
Search strategy:We searched the Cochrane Bone,Joint and Muscle
Trauma Group Specialised Register(December 2005), the Cochrane
Central Registerof Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, the
UKNational Research Register, conference proceedingsand reference
lists of articles.
Selection criteria: Randomised and quasi-rando-mised trials
comparing replacement arthroplasty withan internal fixation implant
for adults with an extra-capsular hip fracture.
Data collection and analysis: Both review au-thors independently
assessed 10 aspects of trial qua-lity and extracted data.We
requested additional in-formation from trial investigators.Where
appropriate,limited pooling of data was performed.
Main results: Two randomised controlled trials in-cluding a
total of 148 people, aged 70 years or overwith unstable
extracapsular hip fractures in the tro-chanteric region, were
identified and included in thisreview. Both had methodological
limitations, inclu-ding inadequate assessment of longer-term
outco-me.One trial compared a cemented arthroplasty witha sliding
hip screw.This found no significant differen-ces between the two
methods of treatment for ope-rating time, local wound
complications, mechanical
complications, reoperation, mortality or loss of in-dependence
of previously independent patients atone year.There was, however, a
higher blood trans-fusion need in the arthroplasty group.The other
tri-al compared a cementless arthroplasty versus a pro-ximal
femoral nail. It also found a higher bloodtransfusion need in the
arthroplasty group, togetherwith a greater operative blood loss,
and a longerlength of surgery.There were no significant
differen-ces between the two interventions for
mechanicalcomplications, local wound complications, reopera-tion,
general complications, mortality at one year orlong-term
function.None of the pooled outcome datayielded statistically
significant differences between thearthroplasty and internal
fixation, with the excep-tion of the significantly higher numbers
of partici-pants in the arthroplasty group requiring blood
trans-fusion (relative risk 1.71, 95% confidence interval1.05 to
2.77).
Authors' conclusions: There is insufficient eviden-ce from
randomised trials to determine whether re-placement arthroplasty
has any advantage over inter-nal fixation for extracapsular hip
fractures. Furtherlarger well-designed randomised trials comparing
ar-throplasty versus internal fixation for the treatmentof unstable
fractures are required. ■
Citation: Parker MJ, Handoll HHG.The Cochrane Database of
Systematic Reviews 2006,
Issue 2.Art. No.: CD000086.DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000086.
Evidencebased
orthopaedics
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 2
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SICOT’s continued efforts Editorial
page 3
Since the last newsletter, your Executive Committee, your
President, and the SICOT Foundation have been working dili-gently
on your behalf. It is my hope that you will respond withany
positive or negative suggestions to the Brussels Office, any
mem-bers of the Executive Committee, or to me at my e-mail
address:[email protected]
We continue to expand our "outreach" programmes.The SICOT/SIROT
2006 Fourth Annual International Conference in Buenos Airesto be
held from 23 to 26 August 2006 will strongly benefit from
thiscontinued effort, as well as from our relationship with
Internet2.Therewill be a broadcast from Buenos Aires on the evening
of Thursday 24 August 2006 to the major cities in South America,
Mexico, CentralAmerica and North America. In fact the broadcast can
be viewed and heard in many cities throughout the world at no
charge whereInternet2 is available.
The SICOT Foundation continues to work closely with the
MauriceMüller Foundation. We have strengthened our relationship and
arevery proud of our SICOT-Müller Fellows. Each of these fellows
willspend nine months with a training programme chosen by SICOT
andthe Müller Foundation, and will spend one third of the time in
Berne,Switzerland. It is our intention to develop other fellowships
with otherinternational groups.A sports medicine fellowship with
the Internatio-nal Society of Arthroscopy, Orthopaedics, and Sports
Medicine is beingcontemplated.
If each member of SICOT will add an additional member this year,
all ofSICOT’s problems will disappear! In the earlier days of this
organisa-tion, it was felt that only the upper 2% of orthopaedic
surgeons wereeligible for membership.Although intellectual
achievement is the hall-mark of a SICOT Member, we now have a more
egalitarian approachto each application.
Chadwick F. SmithSICOT President
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 3
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page 4
On 8 October 2005 the Himalayanregion of Kashmir in Southeast
Asiawas struck by a massive earthquakemeasuring 7.6 on the Richter
scale.The death toll was 89,300 with amuch larger number of injured
peo-ple.
A common feature characterisesmass disasters: this is the
centralrole of hospitals in the challengingaftermath.The Bone and
Joint Sur-gery Hospital is a tertiary care cen-tre located in the
city of Srinagaron the Indian side of Kashmir. It hasa 145 bed
indoor capa-city and is manned bysix consultants, eight re-gistrars
and 20 resi-dents.The nursing staffof the hospital numbers45.The
hospital recei-ved a total of 462 pa-tients in addition to
itsnormal admissions.Thiscaused a significant mis-match in the
patient tostaff ratio as well as for-cing the hospital to use
every possible bit of space for pa-tient admission.
The maximum loss of life occurredin the remotely located areas
of Uriand Tangdhar,which are located 100-120 kilometers from the
hospital.However the hospital started recei-ving patients in the
period immedia-tely after the quake from within a 40 kilometer
radius.These admis-sions were mainly constituted by pa-tients who
had sustained trauma dueto their jumping out of windows anddoors in
response to the shaking of
the ground. Not surprisingly a highpercentage of calcaneal and
tibialcondyle fractures was seen. 51 pa-tients were admitted on the
first dayand another 411 were admitted overthe next four days.
After receiving preliminary reportsfrom the areas mainly
affected thehospital administration decided onan outreach policy.A
team of doc-tors from the hospital was sent tothe areas mainly
affected.This cau-sed an 87% drop in avoidable refer-rals.The
policy of immediate intra-venous of crystalloids in the
referralarea aimed at preventing patientssystolic pressure from
falling below90 mm Hg reduced the number ofrenal failures to
1.5%.The numberof radiographs per patient droppedby 11% compared to
the first day.
In the hospital it was pos-sible to handle such a lar-ge number
of patientsbecause of the availabili-ty of five operating
thea-tres.All areas within thehospital were convertedinto “indoor”
areas bythe procurement of a lar-ge number of extra beds.The three
unit patternswere converted to a sin-gle one. Color slips
wereattached to the head
Experiences from a tertiary care hospital in a mass disaster
Dr Shabir Ahmed DharDr M. R. Mir, Dr M.A. Halwai, Dr Z.A.WaniThe
Bone and Joint Hospital Barzallah
Srinagar, Kashmir
India, 190001
[email protected]
A scene of destruction from Uri after the quake
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 4
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page 5
guard personnel provided by thegovernment.
One of the unforeseen problemswas the occurrence of 18
earthqua-ke “aftershocks” during the first fewdays after the major
shock.Theycaused panic attacks in the patientsas well as in the
hospital personnel.This problem was especially trou-bling in the
operating theatres whe-re it took courage to keep going on.
Special stress was laid on the psy-chiatric care of the
patients, the staffas well as the attendants.The medi-cal personnel
were sensitised to thepossibility of patients wanting toshare their
experiences again andagain.They were told this is
normalbehavior.
Almost all our patients had no shel-ters to return to.This was
especially
board of the beds of thepatients quantifying themby the area
injured.Thiswas done to concentra-te the
super-specialistadvice.
Before referral to thetheatres all wounds werewashed in the
stagingarea with up to 10 litersof normal saline, beforebeing
debrided, dressedand immobilised.The badly soiledcondition of the
clothes of the pa-tients was immediately viewed as apotential
source of infection.All pa-tients received a uniform after asponge
bath.All wounds were rede-brided within 24 hours and onetheatre was
kept exclusively for re-debridement.
The nursing staff of the hospital wasstretched because of the
300% in-crease in the patient load. Betweentwo-hourly rounds
conducted bythe nursing staff, the family mem-bers of the patients
were asked toreport any developing symptoms tothe nearest nursing
station. 87 ofour admitted patients had no survi-ving family
member.This gave rise todifficulty in obtaining informedconsent.
Four patients with comple-te neurodeficit due to spinal
injuriesneeded to be log rolled by the home
serious for the 87 pa-tients who had lost theirentire families.
Dischar-ge and rehabilitation cen-tres were set up in thevicinity
of the hospital totake in the patients andunload the hospital.
The aftermathSeveral months after theearthquake the hospitalis
still receiving cases of
trauma that were neglected by thepatients at the time of their
occur-rence. Neglected distal radial frac-tures, neglected neck of
femur frac-tures and neglected calcaneal frac-tures are the main
types of injuriesinvolved.
From our experiences it is clearthat a rapid coordinated
response isneeded in such situations. In ourcase we learnt that a
lack of familymembers in such a large number ofpatients affected
the normal pro-cess of admission, the managementof the problem, the
discharge andthe rehabilitation.At all these stagesthe mass
disaster threw up challen-ges: at admission the lack of
space,during management the dispropor-tionately less medical
personnel andafter the shocks, the lack of homesand families. ■
Patients being airlifted from Tangdhar to Srinagar for
orthopaedic treatment
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 5
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APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP
Please complete this page and forward it, together with your
curriculum vitae, aphotograph and the list of your main
publications, to the Secretary General, SICOTa.i.s.b.l., at the
address below. Please print the requested data. Do not send
paymentnow! For additional information please see overleaf or visit
http://www.sicot.org.
Name and addressFamily
name………………….…………………………………..………………….……….…………………………………………..First
name…………..………….………………….……………. Initials
………………….…………………………………………..Address……..………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………….….….………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………….City………………….……………………………………………
Zip
code..………………………………………….……………….Country….…………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………..Phone…………………………………………………………...
Fax….………....………….……………..…………………….…..Mobile….……………………………………………………..…
E-mail…..…….………….………………………………………...Birth date……………………………………………………….
Nationality…..…………………………………….……………….
General medical
educationInstitution:…………………………………………………………………………..………………..………………………...……….…………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………
Years:…..………………….Institution:……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………….………………………………………………………………..………………………………..
Years:………………………Last degree
obtained:……………………………………………………………………………………. Year:
....………..….……...
Scholarships, awards and
fellowships…………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
National orthopaedic societyAre you a member of a national
orthopaedic society? Yes NoIf yes, please
specify……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………….
Hospital(s) to which you are presently
attached…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...……………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…
Teaching positions, past and
presentPosition:…………………………………………………………...……………………………………..………………………………..…………………………………….…………………………………………………………….……….
Years:………..….……….…Position:...…………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………..……………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Years:…………..……..……
Are you applying as an Active member Associate member (under 40
years old)
If you are applying as an Associate member you may stay in this
category up to the end of your training and for not morethan six
years. Beginning of training: ………………………(year).
Date:…………………………………………………………….. Signature:
…………..………….………………………………..
Sponsored by (a SICOT
member)Name:…………………………………………………………….Country:………………………………………………………….
Signature:….…………….………………………………...……..
If you are applying as an Active member:National
Delegate/Secretary’s (°)name:…………………………………..………………………..
Signature:…………………………….……………………………(°) if you do not have a National
Delegate/Secreta ry, please apply directly to the Secretary
General.
SICOT publication # AFM000 – March 2003
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 6
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Another functionality of the newSICOT website: the on-line
discussionforum about SICOT/SIROT abstracts
On the web
page 7
The discussion can take place once the Conferenceor Congress has
been held.This is the only way toact as the abstracts (oral or
poster) need to be ap-proved before being posted on-line and
discussed.
This new functionality is of special importance as itwill enable
members to continue discussions held atthe SICOT Conferences or
Congresses when time issometimes too limited.With this forum
memberswill be able to develop themes that they would liketo see
addressed during our meetings, so that this fo-rum will be the
direct consequence and continuationof every SICOT/SIROT Conference
or Congress.
The SICOT Office is proud to announce that thisnew website will
be launched at the SICOT/SIROTFourth Annual International
Conference to be heldin Buenos Aires from 23 to 26 August 2006 and
thatit is currently being tested by the SICOT
ExecutiveCommittee.
■
In the last issue of SICOT Newsletter (No. 99, June2006) we
presented one of the most important func-tionalities of the new
SICOT website: a forum dedi-cated to SICOT Committee members,
enabling themto prepare in advance administrative meetings heldin
every SICOT Conference or Congress and to dis-cuss and prepare
topics of importance.
A second important functionality, similar to the firstone in the
way it is to be used, has also been develo-ped: this is the
possibility offered exclusively to everySICOT member to access a
forum for discussing theabstracts presented at every SICOT/SIROT
Confe-rence or Congress.This new functionality is quitesimple to
use: the author of an abstract presents hisor her abstract on-line
(see illustration) and SICOTmembers are allowed to ask him or her
any questionabout its content.The author can answer the mem-bers’
questions and a real discussion can take place.As for the Committee
members who will have theirown forum, we can say that a forum
dedicated to ab-stract authors and SICOT members will be set
up.
Once again this forum will work in the same way asmost forums,
and especially the SICOT Committeesforum, and will be easy to use.
Every SICOT memberwill be able to post a question on-line
concerning atopic of the abstract for discussion with the authorof
the abstract.The author will have the possibility toanswer him or
her and a real discussion can take pla-ce between both
participants. It is important to st-ress that the forum is not
limited to two participantsbut that every SICOT member can
participate in thediscussion.The author can choose to answer
eachquestion individually or he or she can group thequestions
together and reply to several at once.
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 7
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AIC Buenos Aires 23-26 August 2006
Prof Cody Bünger | CSAC, Chairman
page 8
Prof Bartolomé T.Allende and histeam have put to-gether an
impres-sive scientific pro-gramme featuringa blend of high-le-
vel sessions focusing on bone lossand surgical reconstruction in
pae-diatric orthopaedics, new trendsin osteosyntheses, managementof
trauma disease in the youngadult, and sports medicine.
Distin-guished speakers and panellistsfrom all over the world have
beeninvited to contribute to these ses-sions, which also include
sophisti-cated “how-to-do” topics and in-dustrial symposia.
The free paper sessions, the SICOT conference’s main
core,attracted over 500 submitted pa-pers, which were assessed by
twoindependent reviewers and pla-
ced in focused sessions. Awardsfor the best ten papers and
bestten posters will be distributedduring the Closing Ceremony
ofthe SICOT/SIROT 2006 FourthAnnual International Conference.In an
effort further to improve SICOT Congresses and Confe-rences, the
Executive Committeeis conducting a survey of the per-ception and
level of satisfactionamong congress and conferenceattendees,
including industry re-presentatives. During the meetingfor
independent interviews, aFrench company, MMR, will add-ress
participants and industrial re-presentatives.
We look forward to this ex-tremely interesting conferencethat
will provide the world withthe highest calibre of
extensiveexperience as manifested by the selected topics of this
confe-
rence. Do not miss out! And takea look at http://www.sicot.org
forany further information concer-ning the SICOT/SIROT 2006Fourth
Annual InternationalConference.
■
Comitteelife
The role of the Congress Scientific Advisory Committee(CSAC),
chaired by the President-Elect of SICOT, is to make allnecessary
recommendations to the Board of Directors and tothe International
Council about the quality of SICOT Congres-ses or Conferences and
about the scientific activities related tothese Congresses or
Conferences.
The CSAC consists of the Congress President, a member of
hisCommittee, the Immediate Past, the next Congress
President,Conference Presidents and the Past Conference
President.
The role of the CSACDr Bartolomé T.Allende
Dr Bartolomé Luis Allende Jr
Dr Christian Allende
Dr Iván Bitar
Dr Luis Lezama
Dr Aberto Macklin Vadell
Dr Carlos Tello
Dr Carlos B.Villalba
Dr Matías Villalba
Local Organising Committee of
Buenos Aires AIC 2006
Prof Cody Bünger (Chairman)
Prof Bartolomé T.Allende
Dr Thami Benzakour
Prof Erdal Cila
Prof John C.Y. Leong
Prof Keith D-K Luk
Dr Cyril Toma
Congress Scientific Advisory Committee
(CSAC)
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 8
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SICOT Fellowship in Assiut University,Egypt
page 9
Youngsurgeons
The Postgraduate teaching pro-gramme was meticulously
organi-sed.The Department of Orthopae-dics works in three general
units,plus a trauma unit and a micro-vas-cular unit. Each unit uses
five theat-res on two days every week, andusually manages a total
of 15-20operations each day. In addition thetrauma unit has three
theatres avai-lable 24 hours a day with an avera-ge of 15 major
cases per day.Themicro-surgery unit operates in onetheatre twice a
week.There is a se-parate autonomous septic unit withits own
dedicated theatre.All typesof operations are performed andportable
X-rays and image intensi-fiers are used a great deal.
I learned new operative tech-niques: I learned that a
knowledgeof detailed anatomy and minimalsoft tissue dissection are
the requi-rements for a successful operation.Having these
facilities available hel-ped me to learn that nowadays thebest way
to manage most fracturesin adults is by open reduction andinternal
fixation.Infections and non-unions can be minimised by ensu-ring
good “biological fixation”. I
have learned also that there is anabsolute indication for open
reduc-tion and fixation in polytrauma pa-tients, as long as they
are haemo-dynamically stable. Careful handlingof the soft tissues
and the bonefragments particularly preservingtheir blood supply is
vital.
Each orthopaedic surgeon isskilled in his own way and onelearns
a variety of ways of opera-ting for the same problem. I wasvery
interested to be introducedto surgery in carefully selected
pa-tients with Cerebral Palsy, and inchildren with Erb’s Palsy. I
was gi-ven a chance of assisting Prof Es-sam in an operation on a
congeni-tal hip dislocation which is veryrare in Upper Egypt.
Arthroscopic surgery is ano-ther area in which I was
interested.Arthroscopy is continuously deve-
loping so it would be nice to have arefresher course once in a
while.Three Egyptian fellows are interes-ted in coming to Ethiopia
and gi-ving a course which could last for aweek provided they are
sponso-red: Dr Hesham, Dr Abdelhamidand Dr Hatem Galal Said.
Micro-surgery and hand surgery is ano-ther area which took my
interest.
The weekly Wednesday confe-rence run by Prof Said and Prof
Es-sam was unique in its presentation:a great number of
postoperativeX-rays of recent orthopaedic andtrauma cases were
displayed anddiscussions were rich.A selectionof preoperative cases
was also pre-sented at the conferences and thegreat part of
discussion created afertile ground for a trainee to havean
opportunity to become acquain-ted with a variety of common
andoccasionally rare cases.An opinionon the best treatment of
problemcases was requested from the sur-geon who had the most
relevantexperience.
I am most grateful to Prof GalalZaki Said, Prof Essam El Sherif,
MrGeoffrey Walker,Mr Stephen WoodFRCS and Dr Hesham for comingup
with the idea of making instru-ments for us to take home so thatwe
can carry out what we havelearned. My thanks also go to SICOT and
the SICOT Foundation.
■
Dr Woubalem Zewde WoldemedhinOrthopaedic fellow in Assiut
University
Addis Ababa University,Ethiopia
[email protected]
Operating room
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 9
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WOC-SICOT Regional Training Programme
Dr S. Rajasekaran | WOC President
WOC helps to make this happen by liaising betweenthe trainer and
trainee. Being in the same country,the pathology and the working
conditions are similarand hence the training is of more value to
the trai-nee.The trainee is allowed to participate in all
clinicalactivities including assisting in surgery and hence
thetraining is of immense practical value.
The cost of travel, board and lodging is met byWOC-SICOT
Foundation Fellowship Fund. In mostinstances, the senior surgeons
subsidise the accom-modation cost so that this scheme can benefit
bettera larger number of younger surgeons. Since 2 January2006, 72
surgeons have benefited from travel to acentre of their choice to
have hands-on-training un-der the direction of an eminent surgeon.
■
The WOC-SICOT “Regional Trai-ning Fellowship” programme isnow
one of the most popular andsought after training fellowshipsin the
region.The Fellowship isnot restricted to Indians and hasbeen
awarded to surgeons from
Bangladesh, Srilanka, China and Indonesia.The training programme
is unique in many aspects.
It caters to surgeons of all age groups without anyrestriction
on age so that surgeons from rural areasare able to fill the needs
of their practice.The trai-ning is more dependant upon the need
than on abrilliant CV.The training centre, trainer and the
spe-ciality of training are all chosen by the trainee and
page 10
Bone and Joint Decade is very proud to announce that the new BJD
Patient Advocate Leaders (PALs) website hasbeen launched! Please
visit it at www.bjdpals.org to see the latest in the
musculoskeletal web presence.The objecti-ve of BJD PALs is to
provide a dynamic and user-friendly web space dedicated to advocacy
in musculoskeletal issueswhere patient advocates can describe their
work, voice concerns, exchan-ge stories and experiences, and access
resources. BJD has recruited vo-lunteer BJD PALs reporters from
each region of the world to contributearticles reflecting issues
and opportunities for leadership in patient advo-cacy within their
countries.Please join BJD Patient Advocacy Leaders on
www.bjdpals.org! If youwould like to get involved, please contact
BJD Communications Manager,Sara Martin at [email protected].
BJD Patient Advocacy Leaders (PALs) website launched!
We are pleased to inform SICOT members thatchanges occurred in
the national representationof several countries. In Austria Prof Dr
ReinhardWindhager succeeded in 2006 Prof Dr Karl Knahr,who served
from 1997 to 2005. In Israel ProfGershonVolpin has succeeded Prof
Jacob Neru-bay, who served from 1987 to 2006. In Japan DrKatsuji
Shimizu succeeded in 2005 Prof Shoichi
Kokubun, who was the delegate from 1999 to2005. In Korea Prof
Myung-Cheul Yoo succeededin 2005 Prof Se-Il Suk, who served from
1992 to2005. In Sudan, a replacement has not yet beenfound for Dr
Adam Fadlalla, deceased. In USA DrLouis U. Bigliani has succeeded
Dr Robert D.D’Ambrosia. Dr D’Ambrosia served from 2004 to2006.
Changes in countries’ national representation
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 10
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Worldwidenews
The SICOT Diploma Examination,a great achievement
It was a significant step to gothrough the SICOT Diploma
Exa-mination procedures and to meetits distinguished panel of
exami-ners.This Exam was a very speciallife and career experience.
TheExam was run on the FRCS (Orth)format of the UK and
Canada.Thewritten, clinical and basic sciencequestions as well as
the viva partswere all very well selected and wi-dely distributed
over the compre-hensive orthopaedic and traumasyllabus.
The Examiners, who are mostlyeminent clinicians from many
coun-tries of all continents, conductedthe Exam parts in a very
fair andexperienced way.The candidatessailed smoothly over the
course,stopping at all subspecialties andbrowsing through all types
of ques-tions in trauma and orthopaedics,covering all general
subspecialties.
Even the organisational procedu-res of the Exam were
fascinating.Taking such an exit level exam in anew country that the
candidate
may be visiting for the first time isquite rewarding. Meeting
collea-gues of the profession from all overthe world, who came
mostly forthe congress scientific activities,makes the Exam look
like part ofthe educational and scientific acti-vity of the
profession.
This is all done in a prime luxu-rious spot in the world every
timefor very affordable fees of onlyEUR 300, apart from the
nominalfees to register to attend the confe-rence.These special
treats are onlyallowed for SICOT members.
As I had the honour of passing theExam comfortably by achieving
ahigh score and winning the Ger-man SICOT Fellowship Award, Ido
recommend this Exam verymuch to all other colleagues. It is afair
Exam to take and a bright pro-mising qualification to hold.
Looking around, I could not findany other medical exam by suchan
international organisation. Mostof them are exit professional
exams
like the one of the American Board,of the Canadian or of the UK
thatare only limited to their own coun-tries.The only regional exit
examfound is the one conducted byEFORT, even if this one is also
limi-ted to the European countries.TheSICOT Diploma
Examinationseems to be the most global oneso far.
I think that this Exam should beavailable to colleagues who
arenot members of SICOT, maybe forhigher fees. Surely it will be of
wi-der benefit.
My membership of SICOT is nowin order and my trip to Germanyis
planned for June 2006. Prof Jo-chen Eulert, founder of the
Fel-lowship, has organised for me thevisit to three distinguished
centresof orthopaedics in Germany.
I look forward to my trip to Ger-many, and look forward to
reco-gnition of the SICOT Diploma Exa-mination. I also thank SICOT
foradding a global and multiculturalconcern to the profession of
or-thopaedic surgeon. ■
page 11
Dr El Basyuni, SICOT Dip, FRCS,MSc (Trauma), MPHConsultant
Orthopaedic Surgeon
Kent ME10 1GA
United Kingdom
[email protected]
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 11
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Editorial DepartmentEditorial Secretary: Prof Rocco P.
PittoExternal Affairs: Nathalie Pondeville
Rue Washington 40-b.9, 1050 Brussels, BelgiumPhone : + 32 2 648
68 23 - Fax : + 32 2 649 86 01 E-mail : [email protected] - Website
: http://www.sicot.org
How to join SICOT? Complete the application
form:http://www.sicot.org/?page=application
Visit us at SICOT booth 2 at AIC 2006 Buenos Aires
SICOT_100_august2006 13/07/06 13:05 Page 12
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