News
9th Congress of the European Skull Base Society
Report
The 9th Congress of the European Skull Base Society - “Update and Perspectives” was hosted by the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 15th to l8th April 2009, under the Presidency of Bernard Pauw and Cees Avezaat.
Honorary Congress President was Ugo Fisch. The Rector Magnificus of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Steven Lamberts, opened the congress.
571 Delegates, including representatives from the exhibiting medical companies, from 51 countries attended.
The scientific program consisted of Plenary and Keynote lectures, Main Topic and Pro & Con sessions, Lunch seminars and Oral, Poster & Video presentations.
A total number of 384 presentations were given. The abstracts were published as a supplement of the journal Skull Base,
Skull Base 2009;19(suppl 1):1-100.
abstracts
There were Plenary lectures on Contemporary skull base surgery using a multicorridor strategy by Amin Kassam, End-of-life decision making in The Netherlands 1990-2008 and the European perspective by Paul van der Maas, Surgical management of vascular skull base tumors by Ugo Fisch, Quality of life in skull base surgery by Madjid Samii, The skull base surgeon of the future by Wolfgang Draf and The skull base surgeon: last samurai or future superman by Ossama Al-Mefty.
Takeshi Kawase presented a Keynote lecture on Seven technical keys for the prevention of surgical pitfalls as did Patrice Tran Ba Huy on Intracanalicular vestibular schwannoma: what is the best option?
The Main Topics covered: vestibular schwannoma, ethics, endoscopy, vascular lesions, malignancies, complications, menigiomas, hearing restoration, sellar and parasellar lesions, new developments, basic science and craniocervical junction pathologies.
The discussions provoked many interesting exchanges.
In the Pro and Con sessions on Dilemmas in the neurofibromatosis type 2 management and Microscopic versus endoscopic management of pituitary adenomas, the audience could actively participate in the discussion using a voting machine.
Experts gave 14 Lunch seminars on specialized topics, which were very educational.
Many interesting papers were given at the Oral and Poster presentations.
The ESBS Award contest was won by Venko Filipce, Skopje, Macedonia (Quantitative analysis of surgical exposure and angle of surgical freedom obtained by endoscope and microscope in various approaches to the anterior communicating complex), Carsten Boedeker, Freiburg, Germany (Malignant head and neck paragangliomas in patients with paraganglioma syndromes) and Florian Ebner, Tübingen, Germany (The preoperative MRI assessment of optic canal involvement of parasellar meningiomas).
At the General Assembly meeting, the ESBS Presidency was handed over to Bernard Pauw by Vladimir Beneš.
During the well-attended congress dinner, ESBS Honorary memberships were granted to Wolfgang Draf and Albert Rhoton.
ESBS Fellowships were given to Francesco Doglietto (Toronto, Canada), Wuttipong Tirakotai (Bangkok, Thailand), Maria Koutourousia (Athens, Greece) and Juan Carlos Fernandez-Miranda (Pittsburgh, USA).
Ten Storz ESBS stipends were granted.
Two pre-congress courses were offered: “3-D Anatomy and Approaches to the Skull Base”, Director: Albert L. Rhoton, Jr. (93 participants) and “Cadaver Dissection Demonstrations on Different Skull Base Approaches”, Directors: Ali Krisht and Ernst Delwel (27 participants).
One post-congress course was offered: “Hands-on Course on Endoscopic Endonasal Skull Base Surgery”, Directors: Wolfgang Draf, Amin Kassam, and Carl Snyderman (number of participants restricted to 24).
For accompanying persons a local city tour as well as a tour to the windmills of Kinderdijk and to Dordrecht, the oldest city of The Netherlands, was organized. This was highly appreciated by the participants.
The response of the delegates on the organization, the scientific and educational aspects and the atmosphere of the ESBS Congress 2009 was overwhelmingly positive.
All three courses were highly valued by their participants and rated as extremely instructive, perfectly equipped and very well organized.
This confirms that the ESBS is successful in providing a multidisciplinary, scientific and educational forum on skull base surgery and pathology.
Everyone is looking forward to Brighton, UK, 2012.
Rotterdam, June 2009
ESBS Congress President
Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the Executive Committee of the European Skull Base Society (ESBS), we extend our warm and cordial invitation to you for the 9th ESBS Congress to be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on April 15 – 18, 2009.
Since its memorable foundation in 1993, the bi-annual ESBS congresses have been organized with great success.
We would like to uphold the outstanding level of this multidisciplinary European convention by providing Updated Knowledge and New Perspectives on the management of skull base pathologies.
The Erasmus University Medical Center is pleased to host the 9th ESBS Congress in Rotterdam.
For further information, please see the congress website
www.esbs2009.eu
Welcome to Rotterdam in 2009!
Cees Avezaat, Congress Co-President
Bernard Pauw, Congress President
ESBS Plenary Meeting Minutes
19 May 2005, Fulda, Germany
Opening of the Plenary Meeting by Draf
1. Draf invited Caroline Wain of Thieme for a presentation
Thieme:
- Provides Society promotion.
- Special offers.
- Offers Editorial input.
- Asks ESBS to support and promote the journal.
2. Report of the Secretary / Treasurer
- An overview of National Skull Base Societies- Corporate Members is given.
Together with Regular-individual Members mounting up to a total of about 700 ESBS members. - Membership fee 2005 remains 33 €,
Corporate Membershipfee 10 €. - The total capital of the ESBS is positive. Income can be used for ESBS Awards and Fellowships.
- Rules for ESBS Awards and Fellowships have been formulated.
- To avoid problems of continuation in the Executive Committee a Regulation is proposed in order to make possible that an Executive Committee member can be elected for President-elect c.q. President or Secretary General during the first term as well as the second term in office.
- To get a better link with the journal a Regulation is proposed that the European Editor in Chief of the official ESBS journal Skull Base may be invited to the Executive Committee meetings as non-voting Executive Committee member.
- European Council members will participate as advisory Board of the ESBS Congress
Concerning all above-mentioned items of the Secretary General were no comments or objections from the attending members.
3. ESBS officers
Pauw explained that a letter asking the National Societies Corporate members for candidates for the Executive Committee was sent. Those candidates as well as individual proposals were discussed in the Executive Committee.
In principle the balance of different disciplines should be maintained and Corporate members should be represented in the Executive Committee. Based on this principle the following candidates were elected and are now proposed for approval:
Llorente Pendas-Spain (ORL)
Tran Ba Huy-France (ORL)
Szyfter-Poland (ORL)
Laedrach-Switzerland (Maxillofacial surgeon/ORL)
Hardwidge-UK (Neurosurgeon)
There were no comments or objections from the attending members and
the candidates were accepted by acclamation.
4. 8th ESBS Congress in Prague, 2007
Beneš introduced Prague.
The probable date will be: 1st week in May 2007.
5. Others
No questions from the attending members.
Closure of the Plenary Meeting by Draf
Bernard Pauw, Secretary General
19 May 2005
