A H I S T O R Y OF T H E A U S T R A L I A N H A N D C L U B

R. HONNER and J. ALLMAN

From Sydney, Australia

The concept of hand surgery as a speciality of its own was slow to evolve in Australia, most hand problems being dealt with by plastic or orthopaedic surgeons, and some by general surgeons. In the 1950s specialized hand surgery started to gain recognition, particularly with the work of the plastic surgeons in Melbourne, led by Rank and Wakefield. In some other cities, such as Brisbane, the hand surgery was mostly done by orthopaedic surgeons, and elsewhere it was evenly divided between the different specialities.

In Sydney, surgeons interested in hand surgery had formed an association to discuss clinical cases, and this group had started regular meetings in 1961. Crawford McKellar was an enthusiastic and active person whose endeavours led to the formation of the New South Wales (NSW) Hand Surgery Association in 1963. This group held regular meetings, has continued to prosper and now holds four or five clinical meetings a year, sometimes with an overseas guest professor. There were some interstate members of this group including John Hueston of Melbourne.

In 1970 and 1971 John Hueston invited members of the NSW group to Melbourne, where his hospitality and surgical expertise were greatly appreciated. At this time, the concept of a nationwide hand surgery society was discussed again, but the problems of interdisciplinary rivalry and the widely scattered centres of population in Australia were daunting. However, in the ensuing months, the NSW Hand Surgery Association persevered, a draft constitution was prepared and surgeons around Australia who had an interest in this field were contacted.

In March 1972 Sir Benjamin Rank came to Sydney and was met by the office bearers of the NSW Hand Surgery Association, Alan McJannet, Frank Harvey, Richard Honner and John Allman. After discussion of the objects of the group, he agreed to support the formation of a National Hand Surgery Society, and to chair the meeting required for its formation.

The foundation meeting was held on 1 July 1972 in Sydney. 47 interested surgeons from around the country discussed a draft constitution which was eventually accepted, and the organization was named the Australian Hand Club. The first office bearers were elected as follows:

President: Sir Benjamin Rank. President Elect: Alan McJannet. Secretary: Frank Harvey. Treasurer: Richard Honner. Committee members: Peter Millroy, Don Robinson,

Bernard O'Brien.

Following the directions of the meeting and its office bearers, regular annual meetings have been held, usually

rotating in turn through each state of Australia, with occasional joint meetings with other organizations such as GEM in Mauritius in 1977, and more recently the New Zealand Society for Surgery of the Hand (1988) and the Singapore Society for Hand Surgery (1989).

Over the years, the Australian Hand Club has had approximately 100 members. 50 or 60 attend the Annual General Meeting, which usually lasts for one week, with a mixture of formal paper presentations, panel discus- sions and problem cases. Overseas guest professors have attended, and because of the small number of surgeons involved, the discussions are informal, frequently vigor- ous and sometimes fiercely contested.

In 1974, members of the Australian Hand Club, led by Sir Benjamin Rank, toured hand surgery centres in the USA. This was an extremely rewarding and informative trip, and our gratitude goes to our American hosts, and the organizer, Alan McJannet. In 1977 Ian McGregor from Glasgow attended our Annual Meeting in Perth as a guest professor and made a great contribution to that meeting. He became the first honorary member of the Australian Hand Club.

A highlight of the early years of the Australian Hand Club was the International Hand Surgery Congress which was held in Melbourne in November 1979, followed by smaller meetings held in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. This was a major meeting, attended by over 300 surgeons from all over the world, with a varied scientific programme including free papers, panel discussions and clinical sessions. The Congress was opened by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cohen, and during the meeting two distinguished hand surgeons, J. I. P. James from Britain and Joseph Boyes from the USA were presented with the diploma of Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons by Professor Douglas Tracy. As part of the congress, four travelling guest professors were invited, and they attended other meetings in the country. These four, Harold Kleinert, Ivan Matev, Eduardo Zancolli, and Christopher Wynn Parry were made honorary members of the Australian Hand Club. In that same year the distinguished Australian anatomist Sir Sydney Sun- derland was also made an honorary member of the Club. The success of the large international meeting in Melbourne was due to the hard-working organizing committee, based in Melbourne, under the chairmanship of Bernard O'Brien.

In 1981, Raymond Curtis visited Australia as our guest professor, attending the Annual General Meeting, and participating in other meetings around the country. He had been one of our hosts in the 1974 tour of the USA and contributed significantly to the quality of our meeting that year.

487

488 T H E J O U R N A L O F H A N D S U R G E R Y VOL. 17B No. 4 A U G U S T 1992

In 1983, the Annual General Meeting was held in Queensland, and Dieter Buck-Gramcko was guest pro- fessor and stimulated our members with his knowledge and experience, particularly in congenital deformities. Whilst a great scientific success, this meeting will always be remembered for an excursion to a coral reef, well out to sea, where a fierce storm occurred and some members of the Australian Hand Club were almost marooned on the reef in a rising tide, but were fortunately later rescued.

Graham Lister was guest professor at the 1986 meeting, held in the scenic Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and he aroused great interest in the techniques and post- operative care of the management of flexor tendon injuries. Our most recent guest professor was Guy Foucher, who entertained and educated our members at the meeting held in Broome, Western Australia in 1990.

Sir Benjamin Rank, who had been instrumental in the organization of the Australian Hand Club originally, and contributed so much to its leadership in the earlier years, was made an honorary member in 1980, joining the visiting guest professors, and Crawford McKellar. Fol- lowing Sir Benjamin's presidency of the Club, the following members have served as president:

In August, 1989 the Australian Hand Club set up its first formal registrar training meeting. Graham Lister was invited as the guest professor, and with a faculty of members of the Hand Club presented a three-day teaching programme, restricted to registrars on approved training programmes in Australia in general, plastic and orthopaedic surgery. This appeared to be a great success and will be repeated in future years.

At the Annual General Meeting held in 1990 the name of the organization was changed from the Australian Hand Club to our new name, the Australian Hand Surgery Society. Thus one chapter in the development of hand surgery in Australia has closed and a new chapter begins. The Australian Hand Surgery Society has 107 ordinary members and 12 honorary members, and its office bearers are:

President: Damian Ireland. President Elect: Gwyn Morgan. Secretary: Philip Slattery. Treasurer: Barry Elliott. Committee: Peter Hales, David Vickers, Michael

Tonkin.

1974-1975 : A. H. D. McJannet. 1976-1977: D. N. Robinson. 1978-1979: B. M. O'Brien. 1980-1981 : P. Millroy. 1982-1983 : J. G. Allman. 1984-1985 : R. A. Rieger. 1986-1987: R. Honner. 1988-1989: W. Morrison.

The increasing number of well trained surgeons returning to Australia to specialize in hand surgery offers great potential for the improvement of standards in this country for the future.

Accepted : 27 January 1992 Richard Honner, 56 Burwood Road, Burwood, Sydney NSW 2134, Australia.

�9 1992 The British Society for Surgery of the Hand