Dear friends and colleagues,
the 24th Annual Meeting of the Italian Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery will take place in Sicily, in Palermo, on October 20th/22th 2011.
Our Scientific Society keeps expanding and microsurgical techniques are being applied to lots of different medical disciplines and are now of great interest for many, especially amongst the younger surgeons.
Exchanging ideas with other Societies has highlighted how our society has grown from a quality point of view, above all during the recent meeting in Modena with the American, Japanese and Korean Microsurgery Societies.
Our Meeting in Palermo also wants to create an opportunity to exchange scientific experience not only with different medical teams that are working at national and European level, but also with the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery that will be very well represented.
The Meeting in Palermo will have a co-chairmanship so that opinions may be both ample and varied. Most of the time it will take place in a single conference hall to avoid presentations overlapping.
As usual the scientific program will not only be centred on the aspects of microsurgery in the different parts of the human body, head & neck, trunk & breast, upper & lower limb, but there will also be a lot of time to discuss subjects such as transplants from donor, experimental microsurgery and microsurgery training for residents.
The meeting will be held in the Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa. The hotel is in the historical centre of the city, near the traditional markets, only a few minutes on foot from the Modern Art Gallery and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, one of the main streets of the historical centre of Palermo, that runs by Palazzo Steri, that used to be the seat of the Inquisition, now seat of the Rectorship of Palermo University, and famous Palazzo dei Normanni, that now houses the Sicilian Regional Assembly, where the opening ceremony of our meeting will be held.
We are especially taking care that when you are not involved in scientific sessions you will have a good time, trying to satisfy your cultural interests; Palermo is at the same time exotic and European, mysterious and welcoming and will be a helpful ally in doing so.
We are sure that our enthusiasm and our organizing efforts will be rewarded by the attendance of many of you and by the high value of the scientific contributions you will want to share with us.


We are looking forward to seeing you soon in Palermo.
Giorgio De Santis and Francesco Moschella