Posted by Tim Berkowitz and Anne Villeneuve.
We attended late last week the Inspiration (International Spine Research and Innovation) meeting in Cannes. More than 70 spine surgeons from twenty-three countries discussed:
strategic traps in thoraco-lumbar fractures.
Before the roundtables, state of the art surgical treatments for each topics were described by Aliro San Martin (Chile), Jean-Paul Steib (France), Philippe Otten (Switzerland) and Peter Klara (USA).
On the first day, an additional conference on 'total en-bloc vertebrectomy' was performed by Christian Mazel (France). On the second day, a debate was organized on 'disc prosthesis versus dynamic stabilization'. This session raised the question of the choice of indications and the need for clinical evidence to support the success of these implants.
Inspiration is a non-profit organization created in 2000 by 4 European surgeons - Gilles Perrin (France), Pierre Pries (France), Guy Matgé (Luxembourg) and Robert Schönmayr (Germany) - who sought to build a community of leading spinal surgeons from all continents.
In 2003, Antonio Castellvi (USA) and Fernando Magalhaes (Brazil) joined Inspiration's Scientific Committee which determines which three hot topics will be reviewed each year at the Meeting.
Specifically, the meeting provides an interactive forum for attendees to exchange their experiences on spinal disorders through roundtable sessions where each participant has to bring a clinical case. This format generates discussion on controversial subjects that takes place in an informal and friendly atmosphere.
The next Inspiration Meeting will take place on October 27-28, 2006 in Wiesbaden (Germany).
Of particular note was that this meeting was the first opportunity to demonstrate the link that has been created between Inspiration and Argos Association, with the participation of two of the Argos co-founders: Christian Mazel and Jean-Paul Steib. Similarly, general Inspiration members will attend the next Argos meeting that will take place in Paris on January 26-27, 2006.
