The American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM) had its ‘Silver Anniversary’ 4-day meeting in Maui mid-January 2009. Reconstructive microsurgery sometimes seems to be conceived as a niche Specialty only performed by a handful of surgeons. The ASRM, however has for some time understood this challenge of misperception and been inclusive rather than exclusive by very actively embracing reconstructive surgery as a whole rather than purely reconstruction by microsurgical techniques. In addition they are very open to partnering with reconstructive surgical societies across the world, east and west. This meeting has for many years now been held in conjunction with the meetings of the American Association for Hand Surgery (AAHS) and the American Society for Peripheral Nerve (ASPN). This open and modern approach has proven very successful as this recent ASRM meeting again had the best attendance ever with well over 400 ASRM registered participants and membership growing to well over 600 members. The ASRM continues to be innovative with developing new educational programs and creating public awareness to the spectacular reconstructive work its members do in restoring lives on a daily basis.
Every year the meeting takes place in one of the warmer climate zones of the U.S.A. at the beginning of January. The timing and location make a pleasant interruption of winter for many of the participants. This year the meeting was held on the beautiful tropical island of Maui in Hawaii.
J. Brian Boyd put the excellent scientific program of this year's meeting together. The structure of the meeting has changed over the past years as new presentation and education formats are constantly being tested and replaced based on membership feedback. This year numerous concurrent ‘standard’ paper sessions presented a wealth of new clinical and basic science ideas as well as outcomes of a wide range of reconstructive procedures in the currently well-received ‘5min paper’ format. In addition to a few plenary panel sessions, days were started and ended with multiple ‘mini-panels’ or instructional courses that allowed close interaction between participants and faculty in a very informal atmosphere. During the ASRM meeting several combined sessions with AAHS and ASPN bring together experts from different areas to discuss common problems.
Every ASRM meeting has several educational highlights. The first day of the meeting has traditionally had the Master Series symposium on the program. This symposium is designed for residents and fellows though it is open to anyone attending the meeting. This year Lawrence Gottlieb came up with an excellent format for this afternoon. He invited an international faculty of experts to present their worst disasters and how they dealt with them (Figure 1). The title of the session was called ‘Disasters with the Masters’. This proved to be an excellent choice as the large audience was captivated. The topics ranged from disasters in upper and lower extremity, trunk, breast, and head and neck reconstruction.
Figure 1 The ‘Masters of Disaster’ faculty from left to right, Lawrence Gottlieb, Stefan Hofer, Peter Neligan, Scott Levin, Robert Walton, Fu-Chan Wei, and Eduardo Rodriguez.
The president's invited lecture was presented by Thomas Starzl, who is the ‘father of transplantation’. He presented an impressive overview of his life's achievements in transplantation that are still ongoing. He also highlighted the important role of Plastic Surgery in the person of Nobel Laureate Jim Murray in the development of solid organ transplantation. It is interesting that, once again, Plastic Surgery is leading the way in this new era of Composite Tissue Allotransplantation. The Buncke lecture (Buncke is considered the father of microsurgery) was given by Ralph Manktelow Figure 2, who gave a very open and honest insight into his career and life with the emphasis on change and how to embrace change. The Presidential lecture was given by 2008 ASRM President, Neil F. Jones. Dr. Jones dealt with the impact of societal changes, such as those of the economy and climate change, on medicine and how these issues impact attendance at meetings and professional interaction. He left the audience with many questions yet to be answered. Dr. Jones' term as ASRM President finished at the end of this meeting. The new President of ASRM for 2009 is William Zamboni Figure 3. The Godina traveling fellowship lecture, for a young microsurgeon who embodies the ideals of Marco Godina, was presented by Michael Sauerbier, who presented his travels around the microsurgical world in 2008 and honored his mentors.
Figure 3 Neil F. Jones (right) is handing over the ASRM Presidency to William Zamboni (left).
One of the highlights of the ASRM meeting is the annual ‘Best case’ and ‘Best save’ competitions where ASRM members get an opportunity to present their best case or best save from the past year. An impressive array of almost impossible reconstructive challenges were presented in front of a crowd that obviously is used to a challenge.
The last day of the meeting ended with a combined symposium with a new society, the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation (ASRT). The continuing interest and achievements in composite tissue allotransplantation were the focus of this combined meeting.
This ASRM meeting was a great scientific success. Another aspect of ASRM that is just as important as the science of the meeting is the social interaction during the meeting. There were several fantastic social functions during the meeting, which were very well attended. At the same time ASRM is a casual meeting with many opportunities to interact with faculty and participants from all over the world. It is a ‘reconstructive family’ that is always welcoming to new family members. The first thing we did after returning home was mark our calendar for January 9–12, 2010 when the next ASRM meeting will be held in Boca Raton, Florida.
Division of Plastic Surgery, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Corresponding author. Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Toronto, Department of Surgery and Department of Surgical Oncology, University Health Network, 200 Elizabeth Street, 8N-865 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2C4. Tel.: +1 416 340 3449; fax: +1 416 340 4403.
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