European Instructional Lectures Volume 9, 2009; 10th EFORT Congress, Vienna, Austria

The 10th Congress of the European Federation of National Associations of Ort- paedics and Traumatology (EFORT) is the most important combined congress of the national societies in Europe. At present a total of 36 societies are members of this organisation. The major goal of EFORT is to bring current knowledge of diseases and trauma of the musculoskeletal system to all European surgeons and additionally to welcome colleagues from all over the world to join us in sharing our daily work experience. In the scienti? c programme the instructional lectures form a very basic and imp- tant part of the Congress. In Vienna a total of 25 sessions are included in the p- gramme. The authors come from all over Europe and they discuss topics from many different ? elds of trauma and orthopaedics. These lectures not only give the oppor- nity for us to be informed about various diseases, but they are also in? uenced by the authors’ experience based on the treatment philosophy in their own country – again an opportunity to widen the European horizon. They are aimed at both the general orthopaedic surgeons and the young residents and trainees who want to widen their knowledge in different topics of orthopaedic and trauma surgery. As the chairman of the Local Organising Committee I thank all the authors for providing their presentation for publication in this volume. I also address my special thanks to Professor George Bentley for organising this edition.