Combined Meeting 6th ASAMI International & 3rd WCEF
Nuno Craveiro Lopes
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 conclusions, 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.
Nuno Craveiro Lopes (Elected President ASAMI Int 2010-2011)
Jose Carlos Bongiovanni (Past President ASAMI Int)
Maurizio Catagni (Founder and Italian Delegate ASAMI Int)
Nuno Craveiro Lopes
Meeting.