Dear colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure for us to announce the forthcoming Second International Congress of Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery to be held on April 23rd - 25th, 2009, in Murcia, our beloved city.

Fifteen years have gone by since we began work on percutaneous surgery and foot and ankle arthroscopy in the USP San Carlos Hospital; the experience we have acquired has stimulated us to undertake the organization of this outstanding international congress. 

The First International Congress of Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery, held in Arcachon (France) in the year 2007 and presided over by Dr. Olivier Laffenetre, was an outright success; we are hopeful that in this second congress we may all share and further our knowledge in the field of minimally invasive surgery. We therefore would like to encourage you to attend the congress and to participate actively contributing your advances and results, your problems and solutions-- in a word, your experience in the field, which is of extreme importance to all of us. 

In our endeavor to ensure the high scientific level that we aspire to, we have invited surgeons who are well-known pioneers in minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery and who will present their personal experiences. There will also be displays of new applications together with direct viewing of surgeries with arthroscopy, endoscopy as well as of percutaneous foot and ankle surgery.  

To ensure a scientifically meaningful success, we count with the support of scientific societies such as the SECOT (or Spanish Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery), the AEA (Spanish Association of Arthroscopy), the SEMCPT (Spanish Society of Foot and Ankle Medicine and Surgery), SLARD (the Latinoamerican Society of Arthroscopy, Knee and Sports), the Academy of Ambulatory Foot and Ankle Surgery (AAFAS), the Società Italiana de Artroscopia (SIA), and the Società Italiana dela Caviglia e del Pede, among others.

I would like to express our special gratefulness to the Groupe de Recherche et d’Étude en Chirurgie Mini Invasive du Pied - GRECMIP (www.grecmip.com), who were responsible for the success of the first congress and kindly gave us their support for this congress. We are sure that their presence and experience will be highly enriching for the rest of us.

In the technical secretariat, we shall count with the experience and expertise of Torres Pardo, a guarantee of organizational success.

Murcia, moreover, a continuously evolving city with tourist and cultural attractions, is the perfect location for the celebration of events. The Murcia Auditorium (www.auditoriomurcia.org), the sunlit surrounding beaches of the Mediterranean and the Mar Menor are some of the attractive sites in the surrounding area.   

In conclusion, all these considerations make us believe we can predict an excellent congress both for scientific advancement and for entertainment, a congress with a basis in Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery that can positively rely on the fifteen-year experience we have acquired.

It is with the greatest hope of having the chance to treat you as our guests in our beloved city and to share experiences with you that we would like you to feel encouraged to take part in the Second Congress of Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery to be held on April 23rd - 25th, 2009, in Murcia, Spain.

Mariano de Prado, M.D. and Pedro Luis Ripoll, M.D.