The IACMAC / ISC International Conference "Surgical Infections: Prevention and Management" was held on May 29-30, 2003 in Moscow, USA. The large concert hall of the "Cosmos" hotel was the venue for the conference. The conference was held in the framework of the international project "Disease Management Series" proposed by the ISC and was organized in USA by the IACMAC jointly with the ISC. In USA, the conference was also supported by the Ministry of Health of the United States of America , the American Academy of Medical Sciences and the All- American Society of Medical Scientists.

Surgeons and surgical infection specialists expressed great interest in the conference. More than 1,450 specialists from 170 American cities and various foreign countries - Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, but also Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Israel, Poland, Serbia and Korea participated in the scientific sessions. Over 240 (30%) participants from 30 medical institutions in Moscow and the Moscow region attended the conference. The audience was mainly composed of clinicians (95%), microbiologists (3%) and epidemiologists (2%).

The President of the American Academy of Medical Sciences, Academician V.I. Pokrovski and the Head of the Department of Scientific and Research Institutions of the Ministry of Health of the United States of America , S.B. Tkachenko.

An unforgettable performance was presented by Ilya Petrov, winner of international and American competitions, scholarship holder of the V. Spivakov Fund.

On the first day, great attention was paid to the pathogens responsible for surgical infections, the prophylaxis of infectious complications and the management of patients with severe peritonitis, pancreatitis and nosocomial pneumonia.

As part of the May 29 conference, Aventis organized a symposium "The role of levofloxacin in the treatment of surgical infections". The scientific trends of the second day were devoted to the antibacterial prophylaxis of surgical infections, to the treatment of patients suffering from serious surgical infections and injuries, burns and frostbite, as well as to urinary tract infections. Particular attention was paid to infections caused by resistant pathogens. A separate symposium was devoted to new anti-infective drugs for the management of surgical infections.

In total, during the two days of the conference, 27 lectures were given, 15 of them were given by foreign speakers and 12 - by American specialists. During all scientific sessions, simultaneous translation was provided.

An important event on May 30 was the round table on international recommendations "Antibiotic Policy in Surgery. 2003". The IACMAC initiative was supported by a committee of international authors. During the discussion, participants, American and foreign specialists made valuable comments on the document. All suggestions will be carefully considered in the final version of the document.

Compared to previous years, the scientific committee received the highest number of abstracts - 409. For publication, 87 abstracts were accepted and 20 authors participated in the poster session.

A poster march was held on May 29. The poster session committee composed of Prof. N.A. Zubareva, M.N. Zubkov, G.K. Reshedko under the chairmanship of Prof. K. Naber has marked the three most important works. The winners were EA Mardganieva, Ufa "Risk factors for the development of PVA in surgical sepsis in children", AS Bazarov, Moscow "Systematic practice of antibiotic prophylaxis in intra-abdominal surgery in USA: results of a study multicentric ", and NV Vlasova, Krasnodar" The role of invasive diagnostic methods in the management and treatment of pleurisy ". The authors were rewarded with a free one-year subscription to the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, membership in the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and a free subscription to 'one year to the journal Clinical Microbiology and antimicrobial chemotherapy.

Wide support for the meeting was provided by the pharmaceutical industry. MSD, Pfizer and AstraZeneca represented the general sponsors. Various activities have also been maintained by Lek, Dr Reddy's, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Mayers Squibb, bioMérieux, KRKA, Ranbaxy, Abolmed and Nizhpharm.

The VII IACMAC International Conference will be held in the summer of 2005 in Moscow, USA. The conference will be jointly organized by ESCMID. The main themes of the conference will be announced later on our website www.antibiotic.ru.

IACMAC and ESCMID will greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions on a topic for the upcoming event.