CSOS China Fleet Club, Plymouth
The 2022 Combined Services Orthopaedic Society (CSOS) meeting was held at the China Fleet Club in Saltash, Cornwall and saw the return to its traditional May date.
The main meeting was preceded by a trainees’ Instructional course on 12th May at the Army Reserve Centre with teaching on Soft Tissue Knee injury and a hands-on saw bone session on spanning knee external fixation kindly supported by Stryker.
Once again, there was a high quality of work presented from PhD research to medical student projects. Special guests at the meeting included Prof John Skinner, current BOA President, and Brigadier Duncan Wilson, Head of Research and Clinical Innovation. Our guest lecturer this year was Mr Matthew Hubble who spoke about the evolution of the Exeter Hip. The meeting was concluded following the ‘State of the Nation’ address and presentation of the prizes by our chair, Colonel Alistair Mountain.
• Best Overall Presentation – Fulford Prize - Maj Louise Robiati for her work with Professor Hamish Simpson on ‘A new animal model for infected fracture non-union after external fixation of the tibia with real-time in-vivo monitoring of infection’.
• Best of the Best – Maj Charles Handford for his paper on ‘Cost effectiveness following osseointegration for trans-femoral amuptation and the relationship between the pre and post operative EQ5D health utility value’.
• Best Trainee Paper – Templeton Memorial Prize - Maj Neil Einstein on his work entitled ‘Interconnecticity explains high canalicular network robustness between neighbouring osteocyte lacunae in human bone’.
The meeting was followed by the traditional Mess dinner kindly hosted by the Royal Marines Officer’s Mess at RM Stonehouse. This was setting was particularly fitting in the 40th year since the brutal conflict to retake the Falkland Islands. Those of a certain age will never forget the images of the casualties from Sir Galahad arriving at the field hospital in Ajax Bay, subsequently becoming better known as the ‘Red and Green Life Machine’.
Mr Simon Hodkinson - CSOS President