News and specialist society updates

British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS) update

Andrew Phillips, BORS President

Following the online success of the 2020 and 2021 BORS (British Orthopaedic Research Society) annual meetings, 2022 saw a welcome return to in-person meetings, with BORS hosting the World Congress of Orthopaedic Research at the University of Edinburgh, on behalf of ICORS (the International Combined Orthopaedic Research Societies) in conjunction with EORS (the European Orthopaedic Research Society) and the AO Foundation. The combined meeting of orthopaedic research societies was launched in 1992 and has taken place every three years since then, with the eleventh meeting in Edinburgh being the first to be hosted by the British Orthopaedic Research Society. The meeting was held on 7th – 9th September 2022, with McEwan Hall providing an impressive backdrop for the plenary sessions. With six parallel sessions and almost 500 attendees, the conference provided ample opportunities for the diverse membership of BORS, and other orthopaedic research societies to catch-up with friends and colleagues as well as broadening their knowledge through attending sessions in unfamiliar research fields. Thanks go to the organising committees, and the Conference Chair, Professor Hamish Simpson.

As one of the host organisations, BORS organised several workshops, highlighting the diversity of their membership, which includes surgeons, scientists, engineers, veterinarians, and other allied health care professionals. The workshops included ‘How does joint loading influence pain and degeneration?’ with presentations from the past three BORS Presidents (Professors Mark Wilkinson (Sheffield), Richie Gill (Bath), and Debbie Mason (Cardiff)), chaired by the current BORS President (Dr Andrew Phillips); ‘Prevention of traumatic osteoarthritis’ featuring a keynote talk from Dr Fiona Watt (Imperial); and ‘Finite element modelling in orthopaedic research’, led by Professor Ruth Wilcox (Leeds). Clinical bridge sessions were also held by BORS in conjunction with the British Hip Society and the British Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society.

A separate online event is being arranged for the BORS 2022 awards. Dates and details for BORS 2023 will be available soon, while ICORS 2025 will be held in Adelaide, Australia, on 20th – 24th October 2025. Readers interested in joining the British Orthopaedic Research Society can apply on the website: www.borsoc.org.uk.

British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK) update

James Murray, BASK Honorary Secretary

During 2022 BASK resumed a more normal service after the COVID lockdown years. The spring meeting for 2022 was in May at the ICC in Newport under the Presidency of Andrew Porteous. This was the first face-to-face meeting for many people as evidenced by the highest attendance at a BASK Spring Conference to date; there were instructional lectures, free papers, very popular industry sessions and of course the pre-BASK golf and for the first time crazy golf!

The BASK working groups have continued to work hard on behalf of the membership and for the whole UK knee community – with the patient at the forefront. BOASTs have been released from the BOA, following output from the relevant BASK working groups for the management of ACLs and patella dislocation, following the lead on the investigation and management of problematic and infected knee arthroplasty previously released. The Primary Knee Arthroplasty Working Groups and the Injury Prevention Groups are well on the way to their respective outputs. There is no doubt that we are living and working in extra-ordinary times and the current pressure on both the trauma and planned care sectors is enormous. During this year the Major Revision networks went live – there are still some areas to iron out but the early feedback is very positive. This represents a new partnership with NHSE&I on low volume high complexity funding and organisation which is very likely to expand into other areas.

In September during the BOA Annual Congress at the ICC in Birmingham, the BASK specialty day saw the hand-over of presidency from Andrew Porteous to Professor Leela Biant – Professor Biant had also just delivered her King James VI Lecture – a great achievement indeed and also becoming the first female President of BASK.

There is a undoubtedly a significant amount of development in biological knee surgery and this was well supported by Professors Elizaveta Kon (Humanitas University Milan) giving the Lorden Trickey Lecture in Newport and Tom Minas (Emeritus Professor Harvard and now the Paley Institute Florida) delivering the Adrian Henry in Birmingham. Our thanks go out to both of them for making the time to travel and for excellent lectures.

2023 will see a number of upcoming BASK executive posts, so please look out for the adverts through BASK membership email and apply if you want to get involved – if you are not a BASK member then why not consider joining? The BASK Annual Conference is free with your membership and in 2023 will be in London at Central Hall Westminster from 16th – 17th May.

UK Prosthetic Joint Infection meeting – Glasgow April 1st 2022

Jon Phillips

The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow welcomed orthopaedic surgeons, microbiologists and scientists to the fourth UK PJI meeting. This year we were joined by our trauma specialists for break-out sessions on fracture related infections, while a parallel session on arthroplasty infection was held.

Delegates had the opportunity to review the draft BOASTs for ‘managing native joint infection’ and ‘managing PJI for on call surgeons’ developed in collaboration with the BOA, BASK, BHS, BOFAS and BESS, and presented by Andrew Toms. Rhidian Morgan-Jones was able to provide us with insight into ‘what is required to be an infection revision surgeon’, and Ley Jeys explained how dual operating for complex cases is now standard practice at ROH.

Exeter’s Amy Cudmore, Revision Knee Nurse Specialist discussed how to manage the ‘leaky wound’. Thank you very much to Bilal Jamal, Dominic Meek and David Shields for organising a great meeting. The next UKPJI meeting is being planned to be held at Sandy Park in Exeter, Devon from 15th – 16th June, 2023. For further meeting information please contact Clockwork Medical at: david@clockwork-uk.com At the 2023 meeting, we will be encouraging our colleagues outside from the hip and knee world to join us to learn together how to manage complex infection cases. Our keynote lecture will be on the future of phage therapy to treat infection, a technology that could become a game-changer in infection management.

We hope to see you all in Devon in June 2023.

BOA and Postgraduate Orthopaedics sponsored travelling fellowship to Hôpital de la Tour, Geneva and ICR Locomoteur & Sport Clinic, Nice

Delukshan Srikantharajah

Iam indebted to the BOA and Postgraduate Orthopaedics for awarding me this travelling fellowship which allowed me the opportunity to work with two highly-respected consultants in the field of shoulder and elbow surgery.

I started the fellowship by visiting Dr Alexandre Lädermann, who I met at the London Shoulder Meeting earlier this year, at Hôpital de la Tour in Geneva where his practice is impressively geared towards research with patients completing multiple outcome scores and being enrolled into various studies. Perhaps the most striking evidence of his aggressive post-operative rehabilitation was seeing patients who were six weeks following open Latarjet doing full push ups in clinic.

I then travelled to Nice, where I worked with the world-renowned Professor Pascal Boileau at the Institut de Chirurgie Réparatrice (ICR) Locomoteur & Sport Clinic. He was previously the Head of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery in Nice, and has been at the forefront of innovation in shoulder surgery. To witness arthroscopic Latarjet (Figure 1) being performed by one of its pioneers was a brilliant experience. I was also able to observe a bony increased-offset reverse shoulder arthroplasty (BIO-RSA) (Figure 2), a technique which Professor Boileau pioneered.

Figure 1

Figure 2

I have learned a great deal from observing and assisting these highly-skilled surgeons in both the clinic and theatre environments, and the tips and techniques, philosophies and analogies discussed, will no doubt be invaluable to my future practice as an upper limb surgeon.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding time undertaking this fellowship and would like to express my gratitude to both the BOA and Postgraduate Orthopaedics for this unique opportunity.