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On Thursday 30th and Friday 31st Mr Joel Melton hosted the 6th Annual Meeting of the BKS in Cambridge, at the spectacular venue of Downing College.

The facilities were first class, and once again the organisation and running of the meeting was supremely professional, thanks to David Penford and the fantastic team at Clockwork Medical.

This year’s meeting was a humdinger, with hot topic after hot topic, and with no punches pulled when discussing some of the most contentious topics that we, as specialist knee surgeons, are facing in contemporary practice.

The UK faculty were joined by a dizzying array of professors from across Europe, including;

• Professor Magnus Högström, from Sweden, talking about the Episealer focal resurfacing implant
• Professor Stefan Lohmander, also from Sweden, discussing the role of non-surgical management for degenerative meniscal tears
• Professor Roman Seil, from Luxembourg, presenting his experience of periarticular osteotomy around the knee.

Topped off by a superb presentation by Professor Andrew McCaskie, Director of the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre, sharing his expert insight into the world of ‘true genuine stem cell research’!

This meeting was also a milestone event in that it saw the retirement of the BKS’s founders, Mr Ian McDermott and Mr Neil Bradbury, as President and Treasurer of the BKS – with the election of Professor Mike McNicholas as our new President and Mr David Elson as our new Treasurer. This ushers in a new era in the development and evolution of the BKS, and we all look forward to Mike and Dave leading the BKS forward into even bigger and better things!

Mr Ian McDermott handing over the reigns of President to Professor Mike McNicholas

Mr Neil Bradbury handing over the reigns of Treasurer to Mr David Elson

Out with the old… and in with the new!

We are delighted to announce that Dr Pat Smith, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon from Missouri, has accepted Lifetime International Honorary Membership of the UK Biological Knee Society!

Dr. Smith completed his medical training at the University of Michigan, followed by a sports medicine fellowship under Dr. Jack C. Hughston. Dr. Smith joined the Columbia Orthopaedic Group in 1986, where he specializes in arthroscopic surgery and sports medicine. He has served as the Head Team Physician for the University of Missouri since 1991. In 2010, Dr. Smith was appointed as the Director of the Sports Medicine Division at the University of Missouri in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, as well as co-director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Smith was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

The UK Biological Knee Society was honoured to have Dr Smith speak at it’s 5th Annual Meeting at Old Trafford, in Manchester, and Dr Smith presented on:

• Internal bracing in ACL reconstruction,
• Primary ACL repair,
• Quads tendon harvesting – with a live demo from the Arthrex Mobile Skills Lab, and
• The role of PRP in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis

On behalf of the organising committee for the meeting, we  would like to thank Dr Smith for his inspiring lectures, and on behalf of the whole UK Biological Knee Society, we are proud that Dr Smith kindly accepted Honorary Membership of our society.

Dr Pat Smith being awarded Lifetime International Honorary Membership
of the UK Biological Knee Society
1st February 2019
by Mr Ian McDermott, BKS President

A lot seems to have been published recently in various medical (non-surgical) journals inappropriately demonising the role of knee arthroscopy, and suggesting that “it doesn’t work”.

Vitally, there has been significant misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the genuine evidence that is actually available in the published scientific literature.

There is a definite role for knee arthroscopy in some patients with degenerate tears and / or degenerate knees; however, appropriate patient selection and appropriate surgical skill and technique are absolutely key.

Arthroscopy is an extremely valuable tool; however, the term ‘arthroscopy’ simply means looking (scopy) into a joint (arthro) – it says nothing about what the specific reasons might be for looking into that joint, what specific pathologies / damage might be found inside the joint, what actual surgical procedures (of which there are many) might be undertaken, or finally who might actually be doing the surgery (and what their individual skill-set might be).

Statements such as “knee arthroscopy doesn’t work” are simply ill-informed, ignorant, inappropriate and potentially dangerous, and run the risk of many people being denied access to appropriate modern-day surgical care that could relieve their symptoms, improve their function and help them keep their knee going for longer, delaying the need for more major surgical procedures such as knee replacement.

A number of inappropriate articles and comments have appeared in the British Medical Journal. However, the editor of that journal has refused to publish any of the surgical profession’s responses, which shows a very worrying negative bias (which is deeply wrong for any scientific journal).

CLICK HERE to read Mr Steve Bollen’s excellent and well-considered ‘Open Letter’ to Dr Fiona Godlee, which has now been published in the Arthroscopy journal.

The BKS strongly supports proper evidence-based medicine, and is happy to endorse appropriate statements from leading specialists in their fields who have genuine knowledge and insight into their areas of specialty.

Congratulations go to Professor Leela Biant on being awarded the first ever Honorary Membership of the UK Biological Knee Society for her outstanding contributions to UK knee surgery, particularly with her immense contributions to the recent NICE appraisal of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation!

http://leelabiantsurgery.weebly.com/profile.html