Ten Years CHASG, a Combination of Science and Friendship

On the occasion of Dieter Buck-Gramcko's retirement in 1992, Niels Benatar and two co-editors published a book, “Dieter Buck-Gramcko - Eine Festschrift zum 65. Geburstag” and gathered articles from many international surgeons who had the privilege to know Dieter. The following year, in 1993, Niels began to contact surgeons from all over the world with an interest in congenital conditions of the hand to ask their opinion about his idea of organizing a study group. It was interesting for me to go through the material gathered during the last ten years and realize that Niels not only “originated” our group in 1993, selected the name (Congenital Hand Anomalies Study Group, CHASG) and the logo (a child's hand grasping the fifth finger of an adult) but that his original project and wishes have been quite entirely fulfilled.

The idea was original and far from the normal Travelling Group, Society, Workshop or Congress as it was supposed to be a small group, meeting on a regular basis in an informal way, electing a host to accommodate each venue and each participant paying his own expenses without any type of sponsoring. Only one major topic was assigned with one or two “minor” subjects discussed during two to three days, one member accepting to open several presentations and a long discussion by a “state of the art” report. There was no President or Secretary but Niels accepted initially the de facto position of Secretary General from 1993 until 1998, putting and keeping the Group on track with regular fax briefings and a Newsletter summary of our annual CHASG workshop and business meeting. More recently, Michael Tonkin accepted to take over these duties.

The Founders' Meeting was held in September 1993 during the ASSH Congress with Bill Littler as our guest, “christening” the new group (Fig. [1]). Since that time the spirit of our Study Group has not changed: a small group of enthusiastic and dedicated surgeons meeting on an informal basis to share their experience, complications, frustrations and problems more than their successes. This is only possible in a group of experienced surgeons and friends without too large an attendance. We have the privilege to have special guests every year providing us with additional scientific information in sciences such as molecular or clinical genetics and embryology. The Group has preserved its originality throughout the years under the friendship of hosts like David Evans for our first scientific venue in Windsor (1994) (see Figs. [2] and [3]), Simo Vilkki in Tampere (1995), Terry Light in Chicago (1996), Michael Tonkin in Sydney (1997), Simon Kay in Leeds (1998), Marybeth Ezaki in Dallas (1999), Toshihiko Ogino in Yamagata (2000). I had the pleasure to welcome our Study Group to Strasbourg in 2001, followed by Virchel Wood and Kerby Oberg in Loma Linda (2002) and Rolf Habenicht in Hamburg (2003). This group has special “jewels” among its members like Virchel Wood, who has been throughout the years one of the “Wise”, presenting his tremendous experience with a lot of modesty and always stressing the risks and complications of each technique.

Fig. 1 Founders' Meeting in Kansas City 1993 (you recognize from left to right Toshihiko Ogino, Niels Benatar, Terry Light, Guy Foucher, Virchel Wood, Marybeth Ezaki, Bill Cooney, Bill Littler, David Evans and Paul Manske).

Fig. 2 First venue in Windsor 1994 in front of the Hand Clinic.

Fig. 3 Two days with seven to eight hours of science every day …

Due to the general satisfaction within the Study Group the membership has remained limited to 20 members, each potential new member being asked to come to a meeting and present some personal experience before being admitted unanimously. These strict rules have maintained the spirit of our Study Group, allowing us to devote plenty of time to scientific discussion and also to enjoy informal social events.

Maybe the only goal which was originally proposed by Niels and not yet realized was the dissemination of our insights to the young generation of surgeons interested in treating congenital conditions. As President of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand, I did try to help this dissemination by selecting from this group of surgeons an International Committee to give a report on the website of the IFSSH (www.ifsshwebsite.com) in December 2003. I hope that in the future such dissemination will be possible as the Study Group could not accommodate too many surgeons at the risk of duplicating other more conventional international meetings.

The CHASG has been the most exciting meeting for me over the last ten years. As I am close to retirement, being sixty years old, I wish a long life to such an outstanding group of experts and friends.