Exciting Updates from Ramin Shayan MBBS, PhD (Uni Melb), FRACS (Plastics) Associate Professor at University of Melbourne
"Dear Mary, It has been a busy time indeed. We have been back at it since the awareness campaign. Firstly, we were privileged to meet with your own lipoedema advocates on a visit to London in July. Tara and I were delighted to hear about the efforts that you and your colleagues are making in the UK.
Since returning home, we then made it to Singapore, where I was lucky enough to present some of the technical refinements and anatomical findings that we have made during my ten-year, 500-case series of LVAs for lymphoedema at the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery. This congress allowed all of the lymphoedema microsurgeons globally (such as the great Isao Koshima, see below) to compare techniques and results. I presented a discovery of anatomical nuances of the lymphatic system, a twelve-month Indocyanine Green (ICG) follow-up of 243 of my LVAs, and some of the technical aspects that I have improved.
It had been seven years since I had last seen Prof. Koshima in Sydney for the 2016 Perforator Flap course. I was invited to a tour of the Singapore General Hospital research and training facilities, as well as the laser and burns units, with Prof Samir Mardini, M.D., (microsurgeon and surgical director of Mayo Clinic's Center for Reconstructive Transplant Surgery: Hand Transplantation), and what superb facilities they were. We were able to trial the microsurgery robot again and learn about the adaptations that are being made to its supermicrosurgery capacity.
We also presented at the Queenstown Research Week on the molecular biology aspects of lymphatic surgery, LVA, and our work in the area of radiation disease. 
In other exciting news, we were awarded a grant from the Lipedema Foundation for the next two years to research some of the aspects of the immune system in lipoedema. We also hosted the O’Brien Foundation luncheon to raise funds for our fat grafting and stem cell research programs.
Lastly, in terms of future commitments, Tara and I will see some of your readers at the first world lipoedema congress in Germany in October. Tara is on the organising committee, and I will be presenting a talk on lipoedema surgery. We have been invited to speak at a meeting on lipoedema surgery hosted by Prof. Stanley Rockson at Stanford University in January 2024.
Look out for future publications on our surgical classification system for lipoedema and a presentation on the Praxhub platform on lipoedema and its diagnosis, management, and research. I hope to update your readers again in December on another exciting quarter in lymphatics and lipoedema.
Best Wishes,
Ramin"
Some pictures from recent events
