Synthesis of the 19th ArgoSpine Symposium

After a short introduction of the meeting by the President 2015, Wilco Peul, the opening lecture was delivered by Bart Koes, who dealt with Health Technology Assessment and Guidelines. Then, it was the turn of Carmen Vleggert to show whether there was any Evidence for the Use of Implants in Spinal Stenosis. The final presentation of this session was delivered by Björn Strömqvist who dealt with Surgery for Lumbar Disc Herniation, patients’ selection and outcomes. Developing the subject of “Do Not’s”, Jeremy Fairbank described the UK experience for Low Back Pain. Yves Coppens then took over and further elaborated on “Lucy’s legacy”. Prof. Coppens recalled that Lucy is a partial skeleton of a pre-human found in Ethiopia among other remains. Prof. Alan Crockard offered what he called “a whimsical view” of his practice of Craniocervical Surgery. Wafa Skalli was asked to speak about Finite Element Analysis of the Spine and Arts et Métiers Paris Tech where there is a long tradition of close collaboration between engineers and clinicians. Rune Hedlund, who will serve as 2016 Symposium President, further elaborated on Scoliosis with a focus on Unsolved Issues in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Treatment.