Dear members, colleagues and friends,

We now look back and review the last annual congress of the society which was held in Rostock this year. Many thanks to everybody who contributed to the meeting with presentations, abstracts and workshops, shared their expertise in key note lectures and thus helped to create a better understanding of what intramedullary nailing can do in orthopaedic surgery. Prof. Mittlmeier and me, we do appreciate the work of many members who presented personally or motivated younger colleagues to submit their research work to the congress office. Thus it was possible to create a rich scientific program that was well received by the participants. The congress committee received all in all 120 abstracts and 79 where chosen for presentation. The congress was attended by 145 colleagues coming from 18 different nations, including Namibia, Brazil, Russia, Ireland and many more which acknowledges the international integration of the society.

We had 11 key note lectures with well known lecturers like our former President David Seligson, Vadim Dubrov, Wilhelm Friedl, Peter Giannoudis, Hans Zwipp just to mention a few. Philip Procter gave us a fabulous retrospection on historic milestones in Küntschers life, what influenced his work and how he finally evolved with his techniques on intramedullary nailing.

One highlight of the congress was the appointment of Professor Pol Maria Rommens as an honorary member of the Society. The President, PD Hans-Werner Stedtfeld gave the honorific speech on the work of Prof. Rommens in clinical education and research and recognized his well known accomplishments in intramedullary nailing.

A big crowd joined us for the Gala dinner over the roofs of Rostock with a nice few of the old Rostock harbour. Even though for many participants it was a short night, the last day of the congress was not neglected and the Experimental Forum was especially acknowledged by the participants. Two scientific studies where selected to be honoured. The work of M Lenz from Jena in cooperation with AO Research Group in Davos on biomechanical properties of cerclage wires around intramedullary implants received the Best Lecture Award of 1500€. Andreas Lenich and Uli Schreiber from Munich where awarded with the Best Poster Price of 500€ for their work on polyaxial interlocking of metaphyseal nails.

The congress was additionally sponsered by 15 companies, including BBraun Aesculap as the Diamond Sponsor, Depuy Gold Sponsor, FH Orthopedics Silver Sponsor and MORE Medical and Porsche Bronze Sponsor.

We thank again everybody for their big contribution to that scientific event, we are happy to grow as a Society, we motivated 6 new members during the congress to share expertise in intramedullary nailing in the society. We hope that all of you enjoyed the congress and that we meet again with new interesting topics for the next annual congress in Izmir.

Georg Gradl Thomas Mittlmeier

Details

• Location: Rostock
• Date: May 12, 2012