The 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery, Asia-Pacific Section (ISASS AP 2023) opened on Wednesday for a four-day run at Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.
Korean organizers expressed hope that the conference will help speed up international cooperation to advance the domestic environment for spine surgeries.
Professor Kim Seok-woo of the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at Hallym University College of Medicine, president of ISASS AP 2023, emphasized that the conference has managed to attract spine surgery experts across varying specialties, offering an opportunity to facilitate discussion and collaborations between different specialties to improve treatment options for patients.
“In the U.S., professors of orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery work together. In Korea, however, orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery have developed separately,” Professor Kim said. “I think this conference presents a perfect opportunity for domestic experts to learn from international experts, and vice versa so that we can discuss successful strategies to overcome the issues posed by the insurance system and other barriers in the field.”
The conference will continue through Saturday, during which 90 of the world's leading experts in spine surgery will present lectures on the present and future of spine surgery, the latest advances, and discuss future treatment trends and issues with more than 500 participants from 20 countries.
The lectures will comprise 54 sessions, including topics on robotic surgeries, endoscopy, enhanced recovery after surgery, master’s techniques, complications, minimally invasive surgery fusion, deformity, and outpatient surgery.
Aiming to revolutionize spine surgery in the Asia-Pacific region, ISASS AP 2023 will be held in the Asia-Pacific region for the next five years. “Starting with Korea, the conference will subsequently be held in Indonesia, China, Thailand, Singapore, and then Australia,” he said.
Kim welcomed the popularization of robotic surgery, saying it offers many advantages for spine surgeries by, for instance, better tracking of spatial errors as they can be magnified due to geometrical distortion of preoperative images and tracking errors of the surgical instruments in real-time.
However, he regretted that the lack of insurance poses a high barrier to accessing these technologies for patients.
“Spine surgery ranks second among all 33 major surgeries in the number of surgeries,” Kim said. “I hope the conference will serve as an occasion to highlight the present and future of spine surgeries.”
The Korea Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery (KOSASS), the host of this year’s conference, was established in 2004 and has since been actively introducing new technologies and knowledge in spine surgery through continued research and training of surgeons.
ISASS comprises more than 3,000 cervical and spine specialists from about 80 countries and organizes the academic congress annually to exchange clinical, educational, and technical information.