Proceedings of the Swedish Orthopedic Society: Östersund, September 10–12, 1986

Abstract

The Swedish Orthopaedic Society held its meeting on September 10–12, 1986, in Östersund, which is situated on a large lake in central Sweden. This year, Östersund celebrated its bicentennial; but more than 1,000 years ago the Vikings had a center here to worship their gods, as well as a fortress on the neighboring island of Frösö. Today, Östersund is the gateway to Sweden's most popular winter recreational area. Östersund has a single hospital that serves 135,000 inhabitants living in a 50,000 square kilometer catchment area. Finally, the meeting gathered 220 Swedish orthopedic surgeons. The Östersund Orthopedic Clinic, headed by Helge Semb, has, apart from the treatment of ski injuries, become renowned for its rheumatoid surgery. The latter topic was manifested by the invited speaker Professor Norbert Gschwend, Zurich, Switzerland, whose talk was titled ‘Surgery in rheumatoid arthritis’, and which was followed by papers on the subject. In addition, a special symposium entitled ‘Orthopedics - does it give cost benefit?’ was held, and is reflected in the abstracts printed here. Further, the symposium included a debate in which the panel also consisted of health care administrators and politicians under the moderation of Erland Lysell, President of the Swedish Orthopedic Society. Other topics and contributions of this well-organized meeting are evident from the abstracts below. Finally, three greatly appreciated video tapes on orthopedic emergency care were presented by Jan Sandegard, Óstersund.