Report on the ISGE Intensive Week at Avellino
Host Mario Malzoni
October 17-22/2022

On Sunday October 16, the speakers Günter Noé, Alfonso Rossetti, Alessandro Loddo, Ameneh Haghgoo, Bruno van Herendael and Paula Simons did meet for a drink at the Hotel de la Ville in Avellino with the participants, 19 in total, from all over, the USA, Russia, Albania, Romania, Germany, Iran, Greece and Malta, did mingle and exchange thoughts on what to expect whilst the speakers did try and assure that things are not that bad as perceived.

On Monday October 17, the speakers and the delegates did set out under guidance of our president Günter Noé and a few GPS and after some ten minutes walking we all did arrive at the Malzoni Clinic as indicated by the hotel. Little did we know that the auditorium is situated in the Malzoni Diagnostic Center some four kilometres up the road! Our president once more did take the lead and after some 45 minutes walking up hill all did arrive at the “diagnostica”. Some of us did cheat, like Alfonso, and did arrive before the others by car as our Greek participant had hired a car. Monday 17 was not a lucky day. We did find a very nice auditorium but the streaming from the theatre to the auditorium did malfunction. The Karl Storz people under the guidance of Pascal Renner had to install the ten stations in the auditorium as no other room was available. This turned out to be a very good move as the speakers had it very easy to oversee the four HYSTT, one LASTT and five suturing stations.

Once the lectures did start everything went very smoothly. Mario did join us in the afternoon and our executive director was assigned an office so that she was able to bring all the MCQ’s into Survey Monkey, quite a job. We did agree that the communication before the Intensive Week had not been optimal however this was greatly compensated by the willingness of both sides to make the week a success and by the enthusiastic response of the participants.

On Tuesday the group was joined – by Professor Giovanni Angioni of the university of Cagliari – University that did patronize the Intensive Week – who did give his lectures to an attentive audience. The audience revealed to be very interactive so that many answer could be given to their questions.

The audience had a first as during the second live surgery, all problems resolved, the revised “Shoe lace knot” was demonstrated by Mario with the comments, from the theatre, of the young Indian gynaecologist who did publish in JIMIG the variation on the original shoe lace knot, published by our member Sanket Pisat. This kind of knot is extremely useful when the uterine artery has to be temporarily ligated in case of large myomata. The demo did work as a charm.

During the week HYSTT and LASTT exams did take place and all the applicants did succeed. They did get a certificate of having completed the SEBCOH-i intake to the ISGE Accreditation. On Thursday night the traditional Meet the Faculty dinner was organized in hotel de la Ville. This event was greatly appreciated by the participants as it provided for a very informal contact with the faculty where they were able to talk on the possibilities in their countries from origin.

On Friday the practical exam on one endo corporeal knot with an H2H1H1a configuration – time limit 3 min – and an extra corporeal knot with a S1S1S1b configuration – time limit 2 min – was performed and all applicants did succeed although some just within the time limit.

On Saturday morning ISGE provided once again for a first as the MCQ exam was for the first time organised electronically. All applicants did succeed to obtain the ISGE title ISGE Gynaecologist for MIGS Step I of the ISGE Accreditation organized by ISGE and ISGE Accreditation and patronized by the Malzoni group and the University of Cagliari.