Dear Colleagues,

injuries are among the most underestimated dangers to health. Approximately 750,000 people in the US alone suffer from monocular blindness caused by injury. 90% of those injuries are deemed avoidable, and epidemiological studies in the past were able to present effective measures for the prevention of those injuries. In the past decades, it was thus possible to reduce the number of eye injuries occurring at the workplace, in traffic accidents and during sports activities in a considerable extent in some countries, even though further improvement is necessary on a worldwide basis. However, a significant worldwide increase in the number of eye injuries due to terrorist attacks and wars can be observed today. In these cases, ophthalmologists have to deal with new types of injuries ("laser weapons"), and must expect a possible mass occurrence of injuries, even in apparently peaceful countries. Thus, triage and psychological care of the victims are completely new tasks that an ophthalmologist is also confronted with. The dramatic developments in vitreoretinal surgery can be implemented only to a partial extent in many countries due to very limited resources. This yields a great variety of topics for an international exchange, so that everybody can learn from everyone.

On behalf of the International Society of Ocular Trauma and the German Retina Society, we invite you to Würzburg, Germany, from June 19 to 22, 2008. The host will be the University Eye Clinic, Würzburg, which in 2007 celebrates 150 years since its foundation and is thus among the oldest institutions of its kind.

We look forward to your visit!

Sincerely yours,

Ferenc Kuhn, M.D. PhD  (Birmingham/USA)

Executive Vice President ISOT

Robert  E. Morris, M.D.  (Birmingham/USA)

President ISOT

Prof. Dr. Karl Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt (Tübingen)

President RG

Priv. Doz. Dr. Wolfgang F. Schrader (Würzburg)

local organizer