Collegium Oto–Rhino–Laryngologicum                          December 2009

 Amicitiae Sacrum                                                           Prof. René DAUMAN

Founded in 1926

                      Annual Report 2009  

 Dear Members and Friends,

After the magnificent CORLAS conference organised in August 2008 in Berlin by Hans Scherer as President and Karl-Bernd Hüttenbrink as Vice-President, no regular Collegium meeting was organised in 2009, the year of the IFOS World Congress in Brazil. Therefore, following the tradition, the Board did not meet and no Business Meeting was held.

As indicated by Pekka Karma in his annual report of 2008, the Board is comprised of Hans Scherer (President), Karl-Bernd Hüttenbrink (Vice-President), René Dauman ( General Secretary), Reidar Grénman (Treasurer), Istvàn Szjklai (President-Elect), Gâbor Répàssy (Vice-President-Elect), Chong Sun Kim (Past-President), Wdlfgang Arnold (Councillor), Marcos Goycoolea (Councillor), Mamoru Suzuki (CouRcillor),Matti Anniko (Editorial Secretary) and Ashley Wackym (Second Secretary). The Creditentials Committee is as follows: Allen Ryan (President), Hans Manni and Patrice Tran Ba Huy.

Since the last Business Meeting, I was informed that distinguished members of the Collegium passed away: Joseph Hawkins (honorary member of the US group, born in 1914) in fall of 2008, John Ballantyne (honorary member of Great Britain, born in 1917), Karl-Heinz Vosteen (honorary member of the German group, born in 1925), Lubos Voldrich (honorary member of the Czech Republic, born in 1927) and Antonio De La Cruz (member from Costa Rica, born in 1944), in 2009. They disappeared in Ann Arbor, London, Hamburg, Praha and Marina Del Rey near Los Angeles, respectively. The Board and all the community of the Collegium offer their sympathy to the family of these five colleagues. Each of them contributed to the knowledge and skills of many members of the Collegium.

May I remind you that in Berlin, twenty-one new members were proposed by their respective national groups and unanimously accepted during the Business Meeting: David Baguley (UK), Carol Bauer (USA), Sady da Costa (Brasil), Rick Friedman (USA), Oreste Gallo (Italy), Orlando GuntinasLichius (Germany), Martin Kompis (Switzerland), Stephan Lang (Germany), Marci Lesperance (USA), Manuel Manrique (Spain), Henri Marres (the Netherlands), Joaquim Mullol (Spain), Miguel Quer (Spain), Chae Seo Rhee (Korea), Lokman Saim (Malaysia), Rosamaria Santarelli (Italy), Anne Schilder (the Netherlands), Michiel van den Brekel (the Netherlands), Antje Welge-Lüssen (Switzerland), Tatsuya Yamasoba (Japan), and Fan-Gang Zeng (USA).

Thanks to Ricardo Bento, General Secretary of the IFOS World Congress in Sao Paoto, a CORLAS Symposium was organised on June 4, in one of the nicest rooms of the conference. The topic, "the Inner Ear", was suggested by Pekka Karma. As the purpose of these CORLAS Symposia is to improve knowledge of the Collegium among ORL specialists, the General Secretary of IFOS, Jan Grote, suggested extending the title with "translation of basic sciences into clinics". As moderator of the Symposium I was very grateful to the five members of the Collegium who accepted to take part in the panel and share their research experience with the assembly. Ashley Wackym, Chairman of the US group, showed how "Radiation induced stria vascularis produces early hearing loss after gamma knife surgery of vestibular schwannomas". Istvàn Sziklai, our President-Elect from Hungary, presented his recent research on "Otosclerosis-related inner ear damage and sensorineural hearing loss". Jay Rubinstein, USA, developed a promising theme "Hybrid surgery for a vestibular implant: Preservation of rotational sensitivity". Olivier Sterkers, France, depicted "Hearing preservation in cochlear implant animal models" and its application to human beings. Matti Anniko, Sweden described "New experimental models for Menière's disease".

After the symposium, the CORLAS lunch was organised in the Kiro Room of the Holiday Inn, located in the vicinity of the congress venue. Thirty members participated : Peter Alberti (Canada), Matti Anniko (Sweden), Manuel Bernal-Sprekelsen (Spain), Bernard Fraysse (France), Marcos Goycoolea (Chile), Jan Grote (the Netherlands), Anthony Gummer (Germany), Marcelo Hueb (Brazil), Herman Jenkins (USA), Chong Sun and Pauline Kim (Korea), Nasser Kotby (Egypt), Chul Hee Lee (Korea), Mâns Magnusson (Sweden), Pedro Mangabeira-Albernaz (Brasil), Murray Morrison (Canada), Lars Odkvist (Sweden), Seung Ha Oh (Korea), Stephen O'Leary (Australia), Jan Olofsson (Norway), Keehyun Park (Korea), Anne Pitkâranta (Finland), Chae Seo Rhee (Korea), Jay Rubinstein (USA), Henryk Skariyriski (Poland), Olivier Sterkers (France), Hamlet Suarez (Uruguay), Mamoru Suzuki (Japan), Istvàn Sziklai (Hungary), George Tavartkiladze (Russia), Ashley Wackym (USA) and myself.

Also during the year 2009, I was informed by Bert Huizing and Gert-Jan Hordijk (the Netherlands) of an excellent initiative from théDutch group. When they prepared the book on the Collegium, "Vivat Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngokigicum Amicitiae Sacrum" on the 75 years of our Society, Bert Huizing and Paul Van den Broek collected a considerable amount of information of great historical value.
These archivés are now stored in the Domus Medica at Utrecht, in a room rent by the Dutch ORL Society. Any member, now, can have access to these CORLAS archives. On your behalf I would like to acknowledge the Dutch group for strengthening like this links between generations.

2010 is the year where we will meet in Budapest, on 22-25 August. lstvàn Sziklai (President-Elect) and Gàbor Répàssy (Vice-President-Elect) have chosen an emblematic conference venue, the Hilton Budapest Hotel, located in a UNESCO World heritage site, the Castle Hill. Three Minisymposia have been selected: peripheral auditory processing, vestibular medical emergencies and newest challenges of paediatric otorhinotaryngology. The deadiine for abstract submission (oral presentations and posters) is 4 April 2010. A structured abstract of maximum 300 words in English should be sent to the General Secretary (rene.dauman@chu-bordeaux.fr) as an e-mail attachment (MS Word). Abstract instructions are described in a separate document. Confirmation of abstract selection will be announced individually on 15 May 2010, and this date is also the deadiine for early registration. Deadline for accommodation booking is 16 July 2010. The final programme will be available on the websites (www.corlas.org and www.motesz.hu) as of 15 August 2010.

The annual Benjamins Prize of   1.000, offered by a donation from the Dutch group, will be awarded to a young scientist, member or guest, preferably younger than 40 but not older than 45 years, for a high-quality paper to be presented at the meeting. Members are invited to send an abstract from a younger colleague, collaborator or themselves, to the General Secretary (rene.dauman@chubordeaux.fr) by 4 April 2010. The winner will be selected by the Scientific Advisory Board (President of the Congress, Vice-President and General Secretary). The winner must give his or her paper as an oral presentation.

The Post Congress Tour will be held 26-28 August 2010 (Thursday to Saturday). Owing to lstvàn Sziklai and Gàbor Répàssy we shall be able to visit medieval places in the ancient Pannonia. An attractive program has already been set up by the Hungarian group of CORLAS members and will soon be available on the website of the conference (www.motesz.hu).

At the end of my first annual report, I would like to express my gratitude to our former General Secretary, Pekka Karma. During a memorable weekend at his home in Helsinki, where my wife Catherine and I were so warmly greeted by Anni, Pekka generously offered me numerous documents and wise advices. During these privileged instants, I had the feeling to somewhat discern the meaning of the General Secretary's Key he received from Paul van Den Broek in Washington in 2000.
I also realised the enormous amount of personal work he carried out during the eight years he served the Collegium so remarkably.

I also would like to acknowledge the support from all the members of the Board. Ashley Wackym, as Chairman of the US group, was most helpful in the preparation of the Symposium in Sao Paulo and we had interesting and fruitful discussions on how to improve attendance to Collegium meetings. During the transition time our Treasurer, Reidar Grénman, worked very effectively to collect the dues from non honorary members; he was helped in this task by Ms Kirsi Nurmi in Turku and Mrs Odile Bazerque in Bordeaux. Last, Istvàn Sziklai has prepared an enjoyable social programme in Budapest, in a prestigious environment and we hope that many of you will be able to attend the conference.

My wife Catherine and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology
Bordeaux University Hospital, University of Bordeaux
Centre F.X. Michelet
F - 33076 Bordeaux, France
Fax                   +33 556 79 56 69
E-mail               rene.dauman@chu-bordeaux.fr