This is a report back from a recent (Oct 2016) visit to the premier osteotomy centre in Europe (& possibly the world), where I was hosted by surgeons Philipp Lobenhoffer and Kristian Kley - good friends of mine and individuals that I have learned so much from over the last decade.
Kristian organised a really exceptional programme of cases with two double osteotomies, four distal femoral osteotomies and three high tibial osteotomies, and also some very interesting total knee replacement surgery. We had excellent discussions as always, and thought about innovations that we could introduce to make osteotomy more efficient and more safe and reproducible for other surgeons.
Amongst the many things I learned, here are some of my 'take home' messages:
Adrian Wilson
This trip to Hannover was long overdue, and something that I really wanted to do for my own education.
What is always very humbling as a surgeon - and so important - is coming to a centre like this and seeing these two amazing surgeons in action together. It’s probably been the best educational trip that I’ve made since being a Consultant.
I travel a lot as a result of my educational activities, but usually I am doing the teaching - live demonstrations, and lectures. It’s not often that I can really immerse myself in someone else’s practice like I have here, and take home all these subtleties that they have developed to make osteotomy surgery even more straightforward than I have done already in my practice.
Kristian Kley & Adrian Wilson
I ‘scrubbed’ for all the cases and it has just been totally superb. I think that surgeons shouldn’t just get used to their own techniques and not look to improve and modify and incrementally change things to improve for themselves and for the sake of their patients.
Discussion between Doug Jackson and Stephen Howell.