Vienna, Austria

Vienna, Austria.........what a beautiful city!  We arrived here on Wednesday from Aarhus to gorgeous spring weather.  The temperatures have been a "warm" welcome from the colds of Scandanavia.  Professor Franz Frill, of Orthadisches Spital Speising, has been our most gracious host.

As you can see above right, limb reconstruction is a big part of what this group specializes in.  Of course, they also have expertise in many other aspects of pediatric orthopaedics, including cerebral palsy, DDH and skeletal dysplasias.  On day one, we were welcomed into the OR with Dr. Walter Strobl, who specializes in cerbral palsy.  He shared with us his technique of percutaneous myotomy for the treatment of spasticity (here Michelle joins in the fun!):

That night we were treated to a dinner of traditional Viennese food with Professor Grill.  There we ate Wiener Schnitzel.  This is not a hot dog!  It is pretty much veal scallopine, flattened, breaded and fried.  Absolutely delicious!  The next morning it was back to the hospital.  Morning rounds and case review were followed by the limb reconstruction outpatient clinic.  Professor Grill and his colleague, Dr. Rudolf (Rudi) Ganger, see an amazing array of patients with limb deficiencies and post traumatic deformities.  They're tool of choice is the Taylor Spatial Frame.  That afternoon, we were treated to a private tour of Vienna.  Our host, Ulrich (Uli) Hahnkamper was a terrific guide (a little plug for Uli - highly recommended!).

Our tour started outside the Ringstrasse.  This street (strasse) denotes the site of the original medieval wall which made a "ring" around the city.  The wall was torn down in the 1800's, during the reign of Emperor Fraz Joseph, and converted into a beautiful tree-lined boulevard.  The day included a trip to the Belvedere Palace and the home of Sigmund Freud.  Unfortunately, his couch has been moved to London, so we couldn't lay down for a rest!

Joining us for the tour was Professor Tae-Joon Cho.  He was visiting from Seoul National University Children's Hospital.  His presence was an added bonus to the trip, as he is incredibly knowledgable and friendly.Dinner that evening was again fantastic.  This was at the Do & Co Stephansplatz.  The view of Stephansdom (The Cathedral of St. Stephan) was incredible.  The food and drink were equally impressive!

Back to the Hospital the next day, we gave presentations to the hospital staff, which was followed by time in the OR.  We were then treated to a fantastic mini-course in hip ultrasonography by Dr. Renata Pospischill.

      

This was followed by more time in the OR with Prof. Grill and Dr. Posposchill, as they performed an open reduction for a child with DDH.

Of course, after all of this work, we were really hungry!  So we headed back to downtown Vienna and enjoyed some traditional Viennese sausages.  We were joined by Dr. Matthias Pallamar:

Sites for the day included a private tour of the Lipizzan horse stables, very few people get this close to the Lipizzaners.  Our tour guide, Uli, said that he never had had such an opportunity (thanks to Prof. Grill).  We also toured the inner city this time (inside the ringstrasse), which included the home of Amadeus Mozart and an inside view of St. Stephan's Cathedral:

       

What an amazing city!  I think that we all would love to arrange a return visit to this most historic place.  This is the view from the small summer cottage of the Hapsburgs, Park Shonbrunn this morning.  Just breathtaking!

Off to London!