36^th NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE CZECH SOCIETY OF PLASTIC SURGERY WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION

The 36^th National Congress of Czech Society of Plastic Surgery with international participation took place on 24‒26 September 2015 in the Congress area of the Corinthia Hotel Prague. The organizer of the congress was the team from the Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, University Hospital in Olomouc, consisting of myself, as the president of the congress and also other important members, Dr. Daniel Stehlík and Dr. Petros Christodoulou. Technical support and organisation was provided by the company BOS.org s. r. o.

There were 190 participants in the congress and there were 54 lectures presented, including 12 foreign lectures as a part of the ISAPS panel. The main topic of the congress was “Change of surgical strategies during the last ten years”. The goal of the organizers was to confront the procedures verified by time with modern trends, which we hope we accomplished. I also have to say happily that the level of the lectures was very high and we tried to moderate the whole programme with dignity together with Dr. Stehlík, including provision of sufficient time for discussions after each block of lectures. We consider discussion and sharing of experience to be very important and according to us and according to preliminary evaluation of the congress participants, these discussions were rich and beneficial to all. High quality of some lectures was also the reason why we decided together with the editorial board of the journal Acta chirurgiae plasticae to publish a selection of abstracts of the best lectures in the congress, so that those, who could not participate on the congress, could see the quality of the congress.

Part of the programme of the Plastic Surgery Congress was also the ISAPS panel, the topic of which was “Update in Breast Surgery” with lectures presented by invited speakers. These were worldwide known experts in the field and they participated also on the subsequent event - ISAPS Symposium and also on the two-day cadaver course in Brno. There were totally eleven invited speakers from nine countries participating on the ISAPS panel. These were Eric AUCLAIR (France), Gianluca CAMPIGLIO (Italy), Nuri CELIK (Turkey), Nazim CERKES (Turkey), Nimrod FRIEDMAN (Israel), Boris HENRIQUEZ (Columbia), Vakis KONTOES (Greece), Apostolos MANDREKAS (Greece), Mario PELLE-CERAVOLO (Italy), Carlos Del Pino ROXO (Brazil) and Daniel Del VECCHIO (USA). I thank all the speakers for participation on the ISAPS panel.

After the congress, there was a one-day ISAPS symposium on Sunday 27 September 2015, the topic of which was “What is new in aesthetic surgery”. There were totally 93 participants from 19 countries and there were 28 lectures presented by 14 speakers. The aforementioned foreign speakers were accompanied also by our specialists, apart from me also by Dr. Tomáš Doležal and Dr. Drahomír Palenčár. The scientific programme, which was assembled by Dr. Gianluca Campiglio, was finally evaluated by the participants as of very good quality programme. Organisation of the course was very smooth, including great congress service and samples of Czech cuisine.

In the next days, 28 and 29 September 2015 after the termination of the ISAP symposium, took place the 2^nd Practical ISAPS workshop that focused on the problems of aesthetic surgery of the body, limbs and head. The workshop was organized in Brno in cooperation with ECPA o.p.s. (Education Centre of Practical Anatomy) in a state-of-the-art facility of the Anatomical Institute of Masaryk University and there were 20 participants on this course. All participants had a chance to participate on practical dissection of cadaver specimens under internationally renowned experts. The participants were able to try various types of breast implants, various procedures such as abdominoplasty and a thigh lift and the workshop dealt with the problems of the aging face and various rejuvenative procedures.

Such extensive international event focusing on plastic and aesthetic surgery was not organized in the Czech Republic yet. I consider the integration of the ISAPS panel to the congress programme, despite the first distrust, to be a very good decision and it has enabled presentation of the mission of ISAPS ‒ “Aesthetic Education Worldwide” ‒ also to those young colleagues for whom it is not financially possible to participate on such specialized foreign events yet.

I would like to thank to all my colleagues, who participated on organizing of the congress, and I am also very happy that enormous participation and effort of all organizers was finally successful.

On behalf of the organizing team,

Bohumil Zálešák, M.D., PhD.

Congress President

Vice-Chairman of the Czech Society of Plastic Surgery CzMA

Past ISAPS National Delegate for the Czech Republic