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5th International IMLAS Congress - Seville, Spain, April 22-25, 1998
Report by Robert Jackson
The 5th International IMLAS Congress in Seville, Spain was an all-round success. The delegates, altogether several hundred, were offered not only a high quality scientific meeting, but had plenty of opportunities to visit Seville and the surrounding areas, and indulge in the Spanish way of life. Congress Chairman, Jose Tatay, along with his charming wife, Angeles, were marvellous hosts. They, together with team of beautiful hostesses, put together a superior congress that will be hard to match.
Seville is a unique city that was influenced by many cultures, as mirrored by the diverse architecture, especially Roman, Arabian and Christian. We were able to visit the marvellous gothic Cathedral and the Giralda, a former Moslem minaret, both in the heart of Seville. One of our evenings was spent in the magnificent El Alcazar, where the royal Spanish family still resides. I was fascinated by the mixture of Islamic and Christian architecture, which is very typical for Seville.
One of my favourites was to stroll through the old part of town and visit the numerous Tapa Bars. Tapas come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, are usually very delicious and go very well with a cool "cerveza" or "sidra".
The meeting was topped off by an Andalusian evening in the "Rancho El Roccio", a ranch outside of Seville. We saw marvellous feats of Spanish horsemanship and bullfighting. After the Gala dinner we were treated to Flamenco, the musical soul of Andalusia.
Scientific Sessions
Musculoskeletal laser application is of interest throughout the world. Delegates from all five continents were present at the IMLAS meeting to exchange experience and gain new knowledge . The meeting was held in conjunction with the 2nd Latin-American Congress for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. On Wednesday, April 22nd, 1998 an instructional course on lasers in the musculoskeletal system and a laser safety course were offered to Spanish speaking physicians from Spain, South and Middle America. More than 100 Hispanic delegates were present to learn about the basics of lasers and laser safety.
The IMLAS Meeting started officially on Thursday, 23rd April and went through to Saturday, 25th April and was attended by approx. 250 physicians. Most sessions were on laser-assisted surgery of the spine and arthroscopic laser surgery and were conducted in simultaneous Spanish/English translation.
Special sessions on endoscopic spinal surgery and photodynamic laser therapy, a poster and a video session and the IMLAS business meeting rounded off three very busy days.
Altogether there were five sessions where delegates listened to lectures on lasers in spinal surgery. Percutaneous laser disc decompression is still a major part of musculoskeletal laser medicine, although many authors have reduced the range of indications (H. GraBhoff, Y. Nishijima, J. Franke, W. Siebert, etc.) Other methods using endoscopic techniques have been developed and were presented by several authors with good results (M. Knight, J. Kim, Y. Nishijima, W. Siebert, J. Ramirez etc.) Long term studies are needed in order to verify the success of endoscopic techniques.
Two sessions were devoted to laser assisted shoulder surgery. Laser assisted capsular shrinkage (LACS) were verified by many authors who have good results and plan to continue using the LACS-procedure (W. Thorpe, W. Siebert, M. Kunz, M. Wicks). S. Abelow also gave an interesting and useful overview on this subject. Other techniques, e.g. laser-assisted endoscopic shoulder surgery (D. Martinez-Villalba) are being clinically tested and show promising results.
Ho:YAG Laser assisted arthroscopic surgery for treatment of knee disorders is now an established procedure. Several authors, who have in part performed over several hundred laser arthroscopies of the knee, describe very good results (C. J. Rodriguez. V. J. Saunier, M.N. Doral, P. Guillen Garcia). J. Saunier and O.S. Atik both presented MRI-based studies on whether the laser causes pathological changes after laser-assisted knee arthroscopy. Both authors found no evidence that the laser (Ho:YAG) causes pathology, i.e. necrosis.
The results after laser-assisted arthroscopy of smaller joints (ankle, wrist, etc.) were presented and discussed by several authors (M. Kunz, T. Horaguchi, B. Gerber). This method is very promising due not only to the non-invasive dimensions of the laser and its hemostatic effect. S. Abelow speculates that laser assisted endoscopic carpal tunnel release will become an office "Band-Aid procedure".
One session was devoted to Lasers in Physical Therapy. M. Planas I Vilaseca used the low level laser to successfully treat insertion tendinitis; M. Ferandez Rabadan described a thorough investigation of GaAs-laser therapy of various severe lesions with promising results.
As to the future uses of the laser, R. Jackson’s presentation on tissue welding using laser techniques was especially interesting. His two-year experimental study on in vivo meniscus welding was very successful. Hopefully this technique can be used in arthroscopic surgery in the near future.
The poster presentations took place on the last day of the congress alongside further oral sessions. Delegates could also participate in special conferences that were chaired by experts. These conferences covered a variety of subjects from "can you afford a laser" to "10 years of basic research in laser treatment of cartilage".
Two prizes were awarded for the best poster and for the best oral presentation. The best poster award went to J.R. Tatay Manzanares and M. Revuelta Gutierrez for their excellent poster entitled "Arthroscopic cervical discectomy with laser". The award for best oral presentation was bestowed upon J.L. Vispo Seara for his lecture on "Photodynamic therapy for chronic polyarthritis with several sensitizers", co-authors Ch. Hendrich, G. Huttmann, W. Siebert.
Scientifically and socially, the 5th International IMLAS Congress excelled in all. With the support of MAPFRE, a major Spanish medical insurance company, J.R. Tatay and his team organized a superb scientific meeting with a distinct Spanish flair.