PRESS RELEASE

16th International Congress of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery

IPRAS MEDIA OFFICE
Athens, 08/06/2011

The 16th Congress of the International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS) was held from 23rd to 27th  of May in Vancouver,Canada, constituting one of the most important scientific events in plastic surgery worldwide. Successfully launched by the Canadian Association, the congress was attended by 1870 top plastic surgeons, representing 80 out of 100 IPRAS national and regional societies.

Marita Eisenmann Klein-IPRAS President, Nelson Piccolo-IPRAS General Secretary, Donald Lalonde-Chairman of the Canadian Organizing Committee, Brian Kinney-Deputy Secretary General for North America, Andreas Yiacoumettis-Deputy Secretary General for Europe and Yi Lin Cao-Deputy Secretary General For the Asia Pacific Region, were key speakers of the Press Conference, organized for the communication of the Congress to the Canadian local and regional media.

During the Press Conference, the speakers presented important scientific data on plastic surgery and introduced the IPRAS scientific, educational and humanitarian mission to prominent journalists.

Regarding the main scientific parameters of the conference, the pioneer Dr. Yi Lin Cao talked about tissue engineering and ear reconstruction (growing of a human ear on the back of a mouse), Dr. Marita Eisenmann Klein explained the medical procedure of fat grafting for breast reconstruction and Prof. Yiacoumettis pointed out that skin cancer is more widespread and dangerous than the public might think, since every hour one patient dies in U.S. from melanoma.

Dedicated to their mission to help people in need, Dr Constance Neuhann-Lorenz and Dr. Christian Echinard, presented IPRAS humanitarian work. Dr. Neuhanh-Lorenz elaborated more on the ‘Women for Women’ initiative, an IPRAS charity program founded in 2006 and supported by women plastic surgeons dedicated to help deprived women, suffering from disfiguring or socially excluding injuries and trauma.  Dr. Neuhanh-Lorenz also accentuated how important is the collaboration with other humanitarian actors and in particular with IPRAS network of national societies.

In the same context, Dr. Echinard referred to initiatives such as SHARE (Surgical Humanitarian Aid Resource for Europe) and HUGS (Humanitarian Union for Global Surgery), to IPRAS participation and contribution to humanitarian projects such as  the building of a hospital in Haiti and added that IPRAS intends to further expand its humanitarian action with the development of an emergency force for the disaster relief of affected regions.

PHOTO GALLERY