Dear ASRM members,
Having attended a fantastic annual meeting in Hawaii under the leadership of 2024 ASRM President, Dr. Babak Mehrara and his co-chairs Drs. Robert Allen, Jr. and Jonas Nelson, we turn our attention to next year’s meeting at the newly built Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista, California.
The theme “Breaking Barriers – Building Bridges” is as relevant today as it was during the founding days of our field. The barriers then included technical challenges, fighting existing dogma in reconstructive surgery, and living in a relatively isolated world, at least as compared to today. While Harry Buncke was creating microvascular instruments and sutures, performing rabbit ear replantation, and rhesus monkey toe-to-thumb transplantation in his garage, other thought leaders around the world were pursuing similar endeavors.
These contemporaneous advances were often made in silos, and while travel and communication were not impossible, many cultural and geopolitical barriers existed that rendered collaboration difficult. It was in this age that Harry Buncke organized and chaired the 1973 American Replantation Mission to China. While China was closed to the outside world, especially from a medical point of view, evidence of replantation cases from China was making its way into the western world. During this trip, many western microsurgeons were able to meet and interact with Dr. Zhong Wei Chen and his team, facilitating mutual learning.