Report from HKFAS scholarship recipients:
Dr John Lo / PYNEH
This is a two-day Triennial Asian congress on the updated and hot topics of Foot and Ankle subspecialty for Foot and Ankle surgeons. The two full-day event consisted of symposiums, free papers presentation and instructional lectures. These included the in-depth discussion of the international hot issues of the field of Foot and Ankle, which include topics such as updated treatment options in ankle arthritis, hallux valgus, complex trauma and challenging deformities of foot and ankle regions. There were academic and experience sharing from famous international Foot and Ankle experts. The concurrent workshops held by different medical instrument companies also provided participants hands-on experience on the simulated intraoperative application of some new medical instruments or advanced surgical techniques.
Dr Samuel Ling / CUHK
The event was held in the Bangkok convention centre located at the heart of Bangkok.
As a major event in the foot and ankle surgery calendar, experts came to attend from all over the world.
Professor Beat Hintermann gave the presidential lecture on the theme of ankle arthritis. He spoke on the evolution of the total ankle replacement prosthesis and described his own experience in developing the Integra total ankle 20 years ago and its evolution to the recently launched H2 prosthesis. Many topics have been discussed with enthusiastic debates between experts upon arthrodesis, replacement or regeneration procedures in the management of ankle arthritis. Not much was clearly agreed upon, but it felt that ankle fusion seems to have lost its place as the ‘gold standard’, especially with the advances in the total ankle replacement prosthesis design. On a less ‘academic’ note, Dr Myerson gave a short speech regarding his humanitarian work which he concluded with a tear-jerking video showing the joy in serving under-previledged children.
The HK delegation was strong with nearly 20 surgeons participating in this event. Dr Tse, Dr Kong, Dr Siu, Dr Man and myself all gave a short presentation of our research and Dr Tai gave a poster presentation.
It was an enjoyable and educational conference and I am looking forward to the next IFFAS in Chile next Apr and the AFFAS in Kaoshiong 2022.