Dear Members of EPOS,

I want to express my impressions about the observership at the Paediatric Orthopaedic Department in "Sophia" Children’s Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) during the period 18/05/2026-05/06/2026.

First of all, I was struck by the warm greeting and friendly attitude of Dr. Dagmar Kempink (my supervisor) and the entire team of the Sophia Center. This was noticeable throughout the whole period of my observership. Such a mix of professional cooperation and informal conversations enabled close personal connections and brought a better understanding of providing orthopaedic care to children in the Netherlands. All the necessary help and household advice greatly facilitated life in a foreign country during these three weeks.

Secondly, I was impressed by the level of administrative preparation of the paediatric orthopedics department for this observership (taking into account my professional interests). Even though my goal was to get acquainted with a fairly wide range of pathologies (cerebral palsy, DDH, Perthes disease, sports injuries), a whole range of surgical interventions was prepared for the period of my internship according to the pathology. I had the opportunity to observe the following surgical interventions:

• open hip reduction with application of pelvic osteotomy in a DDH patient;
• VDRO in a patient with cerebral palsy with and without pelvic osteotomies (selectively);
• application of a Fassier-Duval nail for the CPT;
• refixation of a free osteochondral body in an OCD case;
• TSF application for the correction of limb length discrepancy in fibular hemimelia;
• 3-D printed individual guides application for the corrective osteotomies and physeal bar resection.

In addition, I got acquainted with the outpatient clinic work during the week (each day is dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of a separate, distinct pathology). Thus, children with cerebral palsy, patients with Down syndrome and spina bifida, kids with clubfoot, DDH and spinal deformities are centrally referred to a specific specialist. This makes it possible to collect large data sets from various pathologies for further research.

Thirdly, I had a great opportunity to have conversations and debates with experts in specific orthopaedic fields and to obtain professional advice on complex patients from Ukraine. This was possible due to the doctors' subspecialties in the specific pathologies. For example, Dr. Jaap gave me a clue about DDH and Perthes disease surgical management, Dr. Suzanne gave a bit of advice regarding DDH and clubfoot, Dr. Gert shared his experience of lower limb deformities correction, Dr. Renée changed my mind about hip surgeries in cerebral palsy and Dr. Dagmar showed me the realities of sports orthopaedics. The time spent together with these prominent specialists led to the establishment of close contacts and gave a background for further mutual research.

Finally, I would like to personally thank Dr. Dagmar Kempink and the whole team of the "Sophia" centre for preparing and conducting this wonderful and structured observership with a high scientific level, personalized approach and a friendly attitude. This observership definitely gave me more theoretical knowledge and partially changed my vision of the management approaches for certain orthopaedic pathologies in children.

I hope that other young orthopaedic surgeons will also have the opportunity to appreciate the high level of practical and scientific activity at the Sofia Center during their forthcoming observerships.

With my kindest regards,

Vasyl Suvorov, MD, PhD

Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon

SI “The National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics”

by NAMS of Ukraine