Living with Dignity - 10th Anniversary International Conference of Geriatric Orthopaedic Society of India (GOSICON)
The theme of the highly successful 10th Anniversary International Conference of Geriatric Orthopaedic Society of India (GOSICON) was Living with Dignity and was held in the State of Goa. Along with the organising committee, President and organising Chairman, Dr S Bandekar, once again surpassed the experience of previous conferences, which for the past two years were held on a virtual platform due to the worldwide pandemic.
Delegates valued the opportunity to meet face to face as this facilitates greater communication and the opportunity to discuss advancements in their specialty. The strong international faculty included myself, Mez Acharya and Rohit Rambani from the UK.
As with much of the rest of the world, the demographic trend in India has tilted toward an older population, rising by around 36% in the last decade. Presentations discussed the comorbidities of this group of patients, which include diabetes as well the psychological aspects of ageing. There were numerous talks and intense discussion about arthroplasty, and the difficulties Orthopaedic Surgeons face when performing surgeries in the geriatric patient, as well as the failure mechanisms. There were cadaveric workshops which highlighted some of the obvious problems associated with an ageing population such as osteoporosis, fractures and soft tissue injuries such as unique degenerative tears of the Achilles tendon, which impact this demographic.
While I was unable to participate in person, I joined the conference by Zoom, where I presented on Infections in Joint Replacements, identifying recent changes in this specialist area of orthopaedics, focusing on patient adapted treatment.
My thanks to all of those involved in making this such a special meeting as the world embraces a state of normalcy following the Covid-19 Pandemic.