Local orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Stephen Burkhart will be in Edinburgh, Scotland this week, at the invitation of the International Congress on Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (ICSES), to deliver the prestigious Kessel Lecture.
The International Congress is unique in that it showcases the latest views of thought leaders involved in shoulder and elbow surgery throughout the world, and it takes place only once every three years.
At the Congress there are instructional updates, symposia and workshops by the top surgeons in the shoulder and elbow world, and the Kessel Lecture is the cornerstone presentation of the entire Congress.
In his invitation letter to Dr. Burkhart, Professor W. Angus Wallace, president of this year’s organizing committee, called the committee’s selection of Dr. Burkhart, “unanimous,” and a “very fitting tribute to [Burkhart’s] most distinguished career in our specialty.”
Every three years ICSES is held in a different host city around the world. The first meeting was organized by Prof. Lipmann Kessell in London in 1980. Kessel was a successful surgeon based in London, and Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of London.
Kessel is credited with organizing the first international conference on surgery of the shoulder in London in 1980. This conference is considered a landmark in defining shoulder surgery as a separate clinical entity.
Burkhart’s lecture, Expanding the Frontiers of Shoulder Surgery, takes a look at what he calls both the “challenging and exhilarating role that technology has had and will continue to have on shoulder surgery.” And Burkhart should know about technology and medicine.
The San Antonio based surgeon is credited as one of the first orthopedic surgeons in the world to use a technology known as athroscopy for the treatment of specific shoulder injuries. Arthroscopy is a surgical procedure orthopaedic surgeons use to visualize, diagnose, and treat problems inside a joint.
Burkhart said he was “humbled” by the invitation to speak to this prestigious international group. He said, “This is the largest assemblage of the top shoulder surgeons from around the world, all of whom are highly respected in the field, and it occurs only once every three years.” He continued, “This is the greatest professional honor of my career.”
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