June 1999 Volume 5, Issue 1 Editor: James E. Carter, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.O.G Inside this Issue Letter from the President The Editor's Corner ISGE 8th Annual Congress Chair Report ISGE 8th Annual Congress Coordinator's Report ISGE 8th Annual Congress Highlights and Summary Report Laparoscopic Management of Genital Prolapse Evolution in Laparoscopy Letters to the Editor Preliminary Announcement: ISGE 10th Annual Congress 2001 Report from Thai Society for (TSGE) to the ISGE ISGE Secretariat Spaarne Hospital P.O. Box 1644 2003 BR Haarlem The Netherlands

THE ISGE NEWS Letters to the Editor Dear James: The 8th Annual Congress of "the International Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy" held in Montreal April 25-28 1999 was sheer pleasure and surprise. First, the surprise: upon checking in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, I have a message from Togas Tulandi, Congress chairman: "You must be at the opening ceremony" which by the way I was seriously considering cutting. Upon entering the reception room, a few persons on the board or their companions congratulated me for I did not know what! It was only toward the end of the ceremony that I realized that I had been nominated the Honorary member for 1999. The main reason why the secret was so well kept is certainly that the decision had been taken a few minutes earlier thus did not have time to leak. As for the reason for the choice, the immediate past president, James Daniell, summarized it "anonymously" by stating that I introduced laparoscopy in Canada in 1968, participated in founding AAGL in 1971 (I was the third president), developed the bipolar forceps in 1972 and was a founding member of ISGE in 1988. I thank the members of the board of ISGE for their kind gesture and I am very happy to be on the same shelf as A.G. Gordon, Kurt Semm, and Robert Neuwirth to name the last few. The pleasure lasted three days. Meetings started early, on time and were well attended. The presentations were given by the top endoscopists of the world and they did it brilliantly. I came back to Quebec City elated and eager to go back to work! Looking forward to seeing you soon. Jacques E. Rioux, M.D. Secrétariat de Gynécologie 2705 Boul Laurier Dear Dr. Carter, I would appreciate it if this short letter can be inserted in the next issue of the Newsletter and the opinion of our colleagues invited. At the Montreal meeting there was an excellent paper and a beautiful video on TVH (Transvaginal hydro laparoscopy in Infertility). I would like to draw your attention to the following: The same procedure - cul de sac entry was introduced by the 'Father' of endoscopy in America - Dr Melvin Cohen several years ago and he rightly called it culdoscopy: Room air entered the peritoneal cavity as the patient was placed in the knee chest position. In "the new procedure"; the entry is the same as the cul de sac of Douglas, only the patient is in the lithotomy position and saline is injected. Local anesthesia is used in both the procedures. The more appropriate term would be Culdoscopy using saline and not Laparoscopy. With Good Wishes Yours Sincerely, Dr Nargesh D. Motashaw