Leiden, 12 February 2008
A chance meeting with a friend and colleague, Iain Watt, Consultant Radiologist in Leiden, Netherlands, led to an invite from Professor Rob G H H Nelissen to visit the orthopaedic unit at the Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (LUMC).
The University Hospital is large, modern, functional and situated on the periphery of the city. The Department of Orthopaedics is obviously flourishing under the intellectual stimulation of Rob Nelissen.
Research into implant loosening has been performed using a less invasive percutaneous gene therapy designed to destroy the periprosthetic loosening membrane to enable refixing of the hip prothesis with percutaneous bone cement. This is a feasible treatment option for elderly patients for whom surgical intervention is not appropriate. Dr Bart Kaptein also spent time discussing their Roentgenographic Stereophotogrammetric Analysis (RSA) research with me.
The evening department meeting was well attended by orthopaedic surgeons from the University Hospital and from the surrounding area. Speakers Stefan Keiser, Evert (my namesake) Langelaan, and Jolanda de Poorter gave excellent résumés of different aspects of revision hip surgey.
I presented an overview of my evolution of Revision Hip Surgery in Bristol.
After the meeting, Rob, Evert and some of the surgeons invited me to savour Dutch beer and enjoy the remainder of the evening in the charming city of Leiden.