The seminar "Siberian Ponseti Course" was hold on 02-03 August 2008, Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia at Irkutsk State Regional Children Clinical Hospital, Orthopedic and Traumatology  Department head by Dr Oleg Petrovich Stemplevsky, Chef of the Department and his team.

The regional topic was "Treatment of Children Contentious Clubfoot by Ponseti Method". The invited lecturers were: Marc F. Sinclair MD, PhD, Dubai Medcare Hospital, UAE, Naomi Davies MD, PhD, Manchester Childrens’ University Hospital, UK, Maksim Vavilov, MD, Jaroslavl Regional Children’s Hospital, Russia and a  freelancer Mrs Jolanta Kavaliauskiene, the establisher of Lithuanian Clubfoot Club, Lithuania and a great and long time promoter of Ponseti Method for Baltic States and former Soviet States such as Azerbaijan. Unfortunately due to the weather conditions the visit of Prof. Matthew Dobbs, MD, PhD, St. Louis Children's Hosptial, USA was not possible and this presentation were read by Dr Davis and Dr Sinclair.

The English translations were done by Mrs Jolanta Kavaliauskiene and me, Mrs Julia Syssoliatina. As well as the leisure trip to Lake Baikal on the last day of the Seminar with a guided tour around Listvyanka Village and local museums.

There were 35 participants registered. Plus all medical personnel from the Orthopedic and Traumatology Department of Irkutsk State Regional Children Clinical Hospital. The names and addresses of participants are to be published at http://www.kosolapost.blogspot.com later on this month. Amidst them there were 70% of orthopedists and 30% of pediatricians of local clinics and administrative managers plus minor medical stuff and interns of Irkutsk State Medical Hospital.

The topic discussed was the following:
• Introduction – clubfoot a worldwide problem (Maksim Vavilov)
• Current concepts of treatment for TEV (Marc Sinclair)
• History of clubfoot treatment in Russia (Maksim Vavilov)
• Functional anatomy for the clubfoot (Naomi Davis)
• Ponseti Casting technique for TEV (Marc Sinclair)
• The tenotomy of the tendo Achilles (Marc Sinclair)
• Boots and bars (Marc Sinclair)
• Treatment of severe congenital clubfoot using the Ponseti Method in
• Jaroslavl (20 min) (Maksim Vavilov)
• What have we learned? Key points in applying Ponseti casts (Naomi Davies)
• The atypical clubfoot (Marc Sinclair)
• Treatment of recurrences (Naomi Davis)
• Organization of the clubfoot treatment in Jaroslavl region (Maksim Vavilov)
• Building awareness – making a difference (Jolanta Kavaliauskiene, Lithuanian Clubfoot Club)

A big two hours practical casting technique workshop took place on the 2nd  of August and there were two volunteered families with 2 month old and 4 month old babies with bi- and uni laterall clubfeet to put casts on.

All the booklets and stationery were covered with the entrance fee collection plus Hartmann presented free plasters, and Semeda covered some plane ticket expenses for lectures. CBM Found assigned 750 Euros to cover the conference facilities rental fee and lodging of one of the lectors plus local Oil-KOMPLEKT sponsor donated some money in advance to assure all participants would have proper coffee-breaks and covered gasoline expenses and the bus rental.

All seminar went well-organized no discrepancies happened everyone looked content and satisfied. None complained (apart from an elderly surgeon from Ufa who took the word to "protect" THE KITE METHOD that surprised our foreign visitors greatly :) People imbibed every lecturer’s word, were gladly working with plasters and happy to have free time to communicate and discuss things afterwards.

Mrs Julia Syssoliatina.

STEPS was unable to assist financially as we are very short of funds for our research and education fund, but we were able to put Julia in touch with CBM who  fortunately were able to help as they already have a programme in Russia.

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