Harald Tscherne Lecture VIII: “Infection after fracture fixation: The Nemesis of every trauma surgeon?”

Professor Harald Tscherne underwent his surgical training in Graz, Austria and with Professor Maurice Edmond Müller in St. Gallen. He was drafted to Hannover Medical School in Germany to become the first Chairman of the then new surgical subspecialty named «Unfallchirurgie». On this basis, he developed a complex system of trauma care and one of the largest and most influential Trauma Centers in Europe. His recommendation for the surgical phases after trauma and his scoring system for soft tissue injuries continue to represent the standard of care today. Most importantly, the work set the stage for modern trauma care, where various experts share their knowledge in treating the severely injured patient.

Professor Olivier Borens, MD is Head of the Unit of Septic Surgery and Head of the Orthopaedic-Trauma Unit of the Department for the Musculoskeletal System of the University Hospital (CHUV) in Lausanne (Switzerland). Born and raised in Basel (Switzerland), he has received his medical education at the University of Basel and specialized in Orthopaedics and Traumatology at the hospitals of Liestal and Lausanne. It was in Liestal that he experienced his first contacts with orthopaedic infections while working with Profs. Ochsner and Zimmerli. After a one-year-fellowship in Trauma, focussing on pelvic and acetabular fractures under the guidance of Dr David Helfet at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York his work concentrated on the traumatology of the acetabulum and the pelvis and on infections of the musculoskeletal system, especially following joint replacement.

He has made his multidisciplinary infection unit a national and international reference centre for orthopaedic infections, welcoming visitors and fellows from Europe, North and South America as well as Australia. Olivier Borens is intensely involved in scientific activities and regularly invited to present at national and important international conferences. His research focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of periprosthetic infections, biofilm, local antibiotics and minimally invasive techniques in traumatology, among others.

He is acting president of the Swiss Orthopaedic Society (SO), president of AOTrauma Switzerland, Swiss AO trustee, former president of the SO expert group on orthopaedic infections as well as former board member of the European Bone and Joint Infection Society (EBJIS) and since 2017 honorary member of the later. He takes active part in the education of medical students and the training of under- and post-graduate physicians. He is co-editor of several books among which the most important is the AOTrauma book on the Principles of Orthopedic Infection Management. His publication list includes far more than 100 journal articles, several book chapters, and a great number of abstracts.

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