Following the previous successes of Britspine meetings, it was an honour to host the fourth Britspine at Cardiff. This was a combined societies meeting of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons, British Cervical Spine Society and British Scoliosis Society and Society for Backpain Research. It provided an excellent forum to get members of the four Societies together, to present, discuss and exchange thoughts on management of various spinal problems, as well as to facilitate day-to-day practice.
Britspine 2006 marks another landmark of the growing interest in spinal surgery in the UK. As has been seen in the previous Britspine meetings, Britspine 2006 saw a significant increase in the abstracts submitted, delegates registered and the involvement of the trade for the meeting.
The meeting also provided an opportunity for the various delegates to come and visit a new city and have a first-hand experience of its culture, and Cardiff had ample to offer from this aspect as well. The meeting was held at the Cardiff International Arena, which is situated in the city centre.
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| This year’s exhibtion was held at the Cardiff International Arena |
The scientific programme included paper presentations, keynote lectures and controversy debates.
The first morning was dedicated to cervical spine problems, with presentations addressing various issues in this area. This was followed by the controversy debate Spinal arthroplasty is the future for cervical degenerative disc disease. Speaking for the motion was Mr Adrian Casey and against the motion was Mr Tom Cadoux-Hudson. The BritSpine delegates had an opportunity to vote before and after the debate. The vote showed that as yet spinal surgeons aren’t convinced that cervical disc arthroplasty will be the future treatment for cervical disc degeneration.
This was followed by a keynote lecture on Occipito Cervical stabilisation by Professor Louis Harkey (from the University of Mississippi Medical Centre Jackson, MS). The lecture dealt with management of pathologies and stabilisation in one of the most challenging areas of the spinal column.
The lunchtime was utilised for breakout sessions and gave the industry an opportunity to present their cutting-edge technology, along with up-to-date clinical research to substantiate the technologies. Also the coffee breaks gave the delegates an opportunity to visit the numerous trade stands in the vast premises of the arena.
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| Steadfast Corporation’s IDD therapy on the Accu-SPINA table on demonstration |
The afternoon session was for management of spinal deformities. This was followed on by a controversy debate as to whether a right thoracic adolescent idiopathic curve measuring 65º should be corrected by an anterior or posterior only approach. The presentation for the anterior approach was by Mr Stewart Tucker and for the posterior approach, was by Mr John Hutchinson. The vote for the debate showed that the majority of the spinal surgeons would prefer to correct the above curve using a posterior only approach.
The last presentation for the day was about the scoliosis survey in the United Kingdom, conducted by Mr Jeremy Fairbank, which in the present political climate was very appropriate with regards commissioning of scoliosis services in the United Kingdom.
The evening’s social event was a welcome champagne reception held at the Millennium Stadium (rugby is an integral part of the culture in Wales). Synthes UK sponsored this. A male voice choir added an excellent local flavour to the evening.
The second day was mainly dealing with low back problems and general spinal problems. The morning session was predominantly dealing with lumbar spine pathology and its management. The morning debate was titled: Are existing outcome measures adequate for today’s state of the art clinical trials for spinal surgery. The motion for the debate was by Mr Jeremy Fairbank who ratified the outcome measures and the motion against was by Dr Jeremy Hobart (consultant neurologist from Plymouth). The post debate vote showed a significant swing towards the non-believers in the current outcome measures utilised for clinical trials.
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| The Spinal Surgery News stand at BritSpine 2006 |
Following on was keynote lecture by Professor Mike Mayer from Munich, Germany, who gave an excellent presentation on lumbar total disc replacement and its scope for the future in management of degenerative disc disease.
Professor Mayer was involved in the afternoon debate that was titled Lumbar disc replacement will become the ‘Gold Standard’ in the treatment of degenerate disc disease. The presentation against the debate was by Dr Frank Kandziora (from the Cahrite clinic, Berlin) and for the debate was Professor Mike Mayer. Lumbar disc replacement is the current vogue in the treatment of degenerate disc disease, but obviously the pros and cons of this were argued with the available evidence. The majority of the house did not believe that lumbar disc replacement would become the gold standard in the future.
The afternoon session was a special poster session. This gave the ten best posters the opportunity to have a short podium presentation followed by a few questions. Thus allowing more podium time to accommodate more trainees to present their research.
The last invited presentation of the day was dealing with spinal surgery training in the United Kingdom that was conducted by Mr Alistair Stirling.
This was followed by the Britspine AGM, which allowed all the delegates to discuss a few issues around Britspine, the movement. Also discussed, was the venue for the next Britspine, ie, in 2008. There were two candidates, ie, London and Belfast. The delegates generally believed that London surely would hold a great meeting but it was felt that Belfast was more deserving and hence Belfast was awarded the next Britspine in 2008.
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| A selection of the many posters on display at BritSpine 2006 |
The evening ended with the conference dinner, held at the City Hall in Cardiff and the guest speaker for the evening was none other than one of Wales’ best rugby exports, Mr Jonathan Davies. DePuy UK sponsored the dinner.
The third and final day of the meeting had presentations on basic research and spinal trauma. There was an excellent presentation on return to work by Professor Mansell Aylward. This gave the delegates an understanding of the impact problems relating to the spine have on the working population, health, economics, etc.
This was followed by a controversy debate which was titled: This house believes that chronic whiplash is a medico-legal convenience and involved two clinicians and two barristers. This created quite a controversy and lengthy discussions about whiplash injury and its management, but the house generally was of the impression that whiplash injury was a medico-legal convenience.
After all the effort and organisation, it was sad to see Britspine coming to an end on the third day at lunchtime, but it was heartening to see that most delegates and the trade had enjoyed their time in Cardiff.
We shall meet again in Belfast in 2008 for the next Britspine (don’t worry London, you are holding a bigger event in 2012!).
