The 5th International Meniscus Conference comes to ESSKA's hometown of Luxembourg
13/07/2022
On 7-9 July 2022, Luxembourg became the international capital of meniscus science and surgery when it hosted the 5th International Conference on Meniscus Science and Surgery, an event organised under the patronage of ESSKA.
In 2010, the first edition of "The Meniscus" was held in Ghent (Belgium) under the lead of Rene Verdonk and Philippe Beaufils. The goal of this first congress was exclusively to share international expertise on this small but important piece of human tissue. Although meniscus surgery was already extremely frequent, science around the meniscus, its injuries or lesions and related surgical procedures was underrepresented at meetings and even in the scientific literature. Hence, it deserved to be promoted and the sub-title of the congress "From Cradle to Rocker" reflected this desire to cover all related topics, from basic research to clinical practice. The spirit of the first congress was reinforced at the following editions: Versailles in 2013, Porto in 2016 and Bologna in 2019.
Because of the important activity around the meniscus among European surgeons and scientists and as home of the headquarters of many Institutions of the European Community and ESSKA, Luxembourg was the ideal place to organise the 5th edition, as well as to start an active collaboration with ESSKA. This edition was organised under the lead of Romain Seil, past president of ESSKA. More than 450 delegates from 40 countries including many of the world's most renowned specialists in the field met at the European Convention Center in Kirchberg for an intense scientific exchange. A true and unexpected success after two cancellations of the congress due to the sanitary crisis and related restrictions.
A specific ESSKA session aimed at presenting the European state of the art in meniscus surgery. This session was an ideal opportunity to present the ESSKA European Specialists Core Curriculum and its specific aspects around knee surgery but also to promote the ESSKA consensus on degenerative and traumatic tears as well as to highlight some aspects of the ACL revision consensus related to the menisci.
On top of the medical subjects, Mr Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign Affairs provided a well-received lecture on the current political situation in Europe.
Photo - Left to right: Savvas Papasavvas, Jean Asselborn and Romain Seil at the Meniscus Congress in Luxembourg.