[Ortho] Combined Meeting 6th ASAMI International & 3rd WCEF

[Nuno Craveiro Lopes]

Dear colleagues,

In 1981, the orthopedic community got news through the Italian
colleagues that in the confines of Siberia, based on a revolutionary
theory of "Osteogenesis in distraction", a Russian professor named
Gavril Ilizarov Abramovic, makes dwarves grow and treats cases of
osteomyelitis, pseudarthrosis and bone defects with spectacular
results, hard to achieved with the methods known at the time.



This event leaded over the following 10 years, to a climate of
enthusiasm for some and disparagement to others, leading in all over
the world the formation of groups of orthopedists who, believing in
the validity and importance of the method, were willing to deepen
knowledge, analyze results and disseminate their onclusions,
according to Western standards. 

This has led to the birth of ASAMI Associations (Associations for the
Study and Application of the Method of Ilizarov), whose valuable
work, leaded to the fact that today, the methods of Ilizarov has a
well established and universal place among the techniques used in
orthopedics and traumatology.   

So the mission of ASAMI was achieved and other challenges wait for us.

It's time to form a great society or Federation, including all
societies, associations and groups of collegues dealing with external
fixation, more scientifically sound and with a more organized and
efficient basis, geared to the objectives we all consider important:
scientific spirit, research, dissemination of knowledge, training of
young colleagues, all this based on the new technologies of
information.    

This matter was introduced on the ASAMI general assembly held in
St.Petersburg during the 5^th ASAMI International Congress, from 28
to 30 May  2008 under the chairmanship of Professor Shevtsov.

As it is known, it has created a serious dispute between 2 groups of
delegates, because of several irregularities and illegalities. 

In fact, starting with its call, various delegates, including the
president, Prof. Bongiovanni, insisted repeatedly with Professor
Shevtsov for the need to make the general assembly of the ASAMI
International on the afternoon of the first day of the congress or at
most on the 2nd day, in order to count with all the delegates.
Shevtsov avoided to answer the president and the other delegates and
finally at the 2^nd day, announced that the assembly was scheduled
to the last day after the closure of the congress, at 3PM. At that
time, much of the Western delegates were no longer present, and the
discussions and votation would be affected by it.

Second, the ignorance of the delegates about the content of the
statues of ASAMI International and the missing of the Italian
delegate, Maurizio Catagni, founder of ASAMI, due to a illness, lead
to the commitment of various irregularities, including illegal
acceptance  of  5 delegates (Afganistan - Mohamed Mussa Wardk,
Armenia - Arshak Mirzoyan, Senegal - Mouhamadou Habib SY, Azerbeijan
- Jabrayil Alexberov and Syria - Ghassan Salameh), a situation that
by the statutes could only happen at the next meeting, after
verifying that the delegates and respective group met the conditions
of membership. These delegates came to the polls that followed, which
according to the statutes also could not be done.


Third it is established by the ASAMI statutes published at
http://www.asami.org/about/default.asp that the Russian delegate is
only an honorary one, without voting capacity and obviously can not
be voted to president. This is due to the fact that ASAMI was created
to analyze and criticize the method of Ilizarov, outside Russia, so
its inclusion would represent a conflict of interests.


So the decisions we have taken in the S. Petersburg ASAMI assembly,
are at least of dubious consistency, because we have not comply with
the existing statutes or the elementary rules of general assemblies,
justifying its repetition.   

By the other side, although the ASAMI International is the oldest
external fixation society and through its international meetings it
has traditionally covered a large part of the subjects, in numerous
countries the method was not embraced as the only one capable of
addressing the issues at hand. That is how the idea of holding a
world congress (WCEF) arose, in which opportunity would be given to
discuss the variety of methods used in bone and limb reconstruction
including all methods. We began to realise that ASAMI International
meetings and WCEF Congresses brought together the same speakers and
discussed virtually the same topics, with duplicity of financial
expenditure, more wear and tear for speakers and a decline in the
scientific level of the events since the same studies were being
presented each year.  One of the proposals at the St. Petersburg
ASAMI meeting, was to postpone the congress scheduled to Brazil in
2010 two years, and to hold it jointly with WCEF at Barcelona. One of
the major goals of this Congress is to draw a solid consensus with
the aim of future organisation - through a World Federation or
Association - of existing Societies worldwide devoted to external
fixation, bone and limb reconstruction. We believe these topics are
highly relevant both in developed and developing nations and that
advances in the application of both mechanical and biological systems
should be disseminated with scientific rigour and clarity. So it is
crucial to have a world forum where to debate the issue. Our
intention is to accommodate all countries, with their specialists, to
discuss and confront the various methods.



All we know how the St. Petersburg ASAMI assembly ended: Shevtsov was
illegally elected president with the support of Gamal the delegate of
Egypt, which got the post of general secretary, and the proposal was
rejected.   

After that Congress, many of the delegates meet again in the USA
during the AAOS meeting with Catagni and Bongiovanni. The
irregularities happened during the St. Petersburg assembly had been
clarified and was decided to propose to the current directive
committee of the ASAMI International, composed by Bongiovanni as
past-president, Shevtsov as present-president and Craveiro Lopes as
elected-president, that the Brazil Congress (Bahia), where it should
be the next ASAMI International congress in 2010, will be postponed
two years in favour of Barcelona, Spain, where the ASAMI Congress
will be held in conjunction with the WCEF Congress, in order to
discuss the proposed union of the two organizations, and repeat the
general assembly of the ASAMI with a proper number and distribution
of delegates. The Bahia Congress would be in 2012.
This proposal had the agreement of two of the three presidents
(Bongiovanni and Craveiro Lopes) 

Unfortunately Shevtsov defeated on the votation, decided to announce
a congress aside, scheduled to Cairo. 

The Barcelona Meeting 2010, joining the 6th Congress of the ASAMI
International and the 3rd World Congress on External Fixation
scheduled to October 20-22, is a unique opportunity to exchange views
and decide the feasibility of merging the two organizations. It will
be fundamental that we all be present and express our wishes and
doubts, our proposals and agreements. Without all of you, the future
of ASAMI International will be jeopardized.

We have no doubt that this meeting will be a success, both scientific
as social and cultural. 

Official web site of the 6th ASAMI International & 3rd WCEF Combined Meeting.

http://www.externalfixation2010.com/


Nuno Craveiro Lopes (Elected President ASAMI Int 2010-2011)

Jose Carlos Bongiovanni (Past President ASAMI Int)

 Maurizio Catagni (Founder and Italian Delegate ASAMI Int)