This is the second Brussels International Spine Symposium I have attended and both times the meetings have been of excellent quality, very interesting and relevant. This years meeting was tilted “Lumbar Spine Stenosis: Controversies in ethiopathogenesis, management and costs”. The meeting consisted of a series of lectures with both a European and American Faculty and speakers providing an intense series of lectures packed into two days.
I found it really interesting to see the differences in surgical intervention rates especially between different health economies. For example, In the USA where the health system is driven by the insurance companies, there is a significant amount more invasive surgery and instrumented fusions being performed. Interestingly however, the overwhelming take home message is that too many unnecessary (instrumented) fusions are being performed for treatment of spinal stenosis when a decompression is the gold standard for treatment. There were also lots of other very interesting lectures and excellent speakers.
Overall, an excellent meeting.