FW: AAOS Convention in San Francisco

[Guest guest]

The following e-mail I received from this evening.

Allyson

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From: martinegbert@... [sMTP:martinegbert@...]

Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 5:47 PM

To: martinegbert@...

Subject: AAOS Convention in San Francisco

Sorry, but I don't have the e-mail address for the nosurgery site with me and

this e-mail system does not let you go to web sites. I am hoping that Allyson

will forward this to you. It is 5:30 pm Thursday, March 1 and I have been at

the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Convention today. The U of Iowa and

Dr. Ponseti had a poster presentation here as well as Dr. Herzenberg. I got to

go to a 2 hour instructional course lecture on " Clubfoot Controversies " . There

were about 150 doctor attendees and four instructors including Dr. son

(Philadelphia) on " Etiology, Pathoanatomy, Examination and Classification of the

Congenital Clubfoot " a Dr. Jay Cummings (Nuemors, ville, Florida) on " The

Appraisal of the Non-Operative Treatment of Clubfoot " He essentially followed a

historical review of different non-operative treatment methods with comparisons

of reported outcomes including Denis Browne (the doctor) Kite/Lovell, Ponseti,

Bensahel, Dimeglio, Dallas Scotish Rite, Botox.

Dr. Ponseti was often asked to respond to questions about his method during the

meeting. There was time for questions and statements from attendees so I stood

up and told the doctors about our internet groups and that we were interested in

helping new parents be aware of the various treatment methods that existed so as

to help them make informed choices for their children. There was a lot of

discussion about non-surgical treatment being the preferred way of treating

children.

The 3rd doctor to speak was a Dr. Armstrong who was at Toronto Sick Kids

during the same time that Dr. Pirani worked there. He said that he was now in a

managment position with the national Shriners Hosptials headquarters in Tampa.

He said that after the prior discussion about non-surgical treatment methods, he

then had the non-enviable task of explaining how to do the surgical methods. He

had photos taken from 10 plus years ago at Toronto that he said Dr. Pirani had

helped him put together. He said that 4 years ago, the surgical methods

explanations would have been the center of any ped ortho meetings discussion of

clubfoot, where as now it is changing to discussions of non-surgical methods.

The final speaker was Dr. Lehman from NYU whose assigned topic was Treatment

Options for Clubfeet after a prior surgery or repeat surgery. As you are aware,

he and NYU changed over to the Ponseti method a little over a year ago. He

often referred to Dr. Ponseti to help clarify anything to the group.

Afterwards, a couple of doctors asked Dr. Ponseti about the tenotomy (is it

really surgical or non-surgical) and about the anterior tibial tendon transfer.

Afterwards a number of the doctors came up around Dr. Ponseti to ask him

questions and have their pictures taken with him. Dr. Vishwah Tallwalker was

there from Shriners Lexington Kentucky and Dr. Niguroa was there from

Sao Palo Brazil.

After our discussions we went down to the Posters section with Dr. and Mrs.

Ponseti. Dr. Herzenberg and Dr. Frick came by to visit Dr. Ponseti's poster as

well. I will try to get permission to put the small versions of the posters on

the files section so that everyone can see them. It will be nice to see

everyone who is coming to Dr. Colburn's tomorrow. All and all it was a very

interesting day and I will try to put on some more information when we get back

home. Allyson, if you see this tonight can you forward it to the

nosurgery4clubfoot site somehow. and (3-17-99)