After the First World Congress of Sports Traumatology which was held in Palma de Mallorca in May 1992, Dr. Hans Paessler from Germany and Dr. Jean-Claude Imbert from France suggested the idea of founding a new organization in Europe dealing with Sports Traumatology, based on the association of different nations through north, east, south, west, or middle of Europe. This was a formation of an amalgam in sports trauma consisting of national sports trauma societies from the different European countries. This new group was planned to be a “Federation”, not an individual society with the purpose of coordinate and improve knowledge on sports related injuries. So, the creation of EFOST (European Federation of Orthopaedic National Association for Sport Traumatology) was completed in Munich by the initiatives of French and German National Societies (SFPTS and GOTS).

For the aim of promoting a “Federation" on sports traumatology as an independent specialty within Europe the founders contacted with National Sport Trauma Associations and 1st General Assembly of EFOST was held in Santa Margareta di Liguria, Genova (Italy) at the Hotel Miramare in September 1993 with the participation of Jean-Marie Baillon (Belgium), Jean-Claude Imbert (France), Wolfgang Pförringer, Hans H. Paessler (Germany), Pantelis Nikolaou, Georgis Priftis, Nikolaos Piscopakis (Greece), Filippo Rettagliata (Italy), Arthur Dziak (Poland), Jose M. Vilarrubias (Spain) and me as delegates. A constitution for an European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedic Sports Traumatology (EFOST) was accepted as a conclusion of this inaugural general assembly. The mission of EFOST was determined as bringing the Sport Traumatology chapter under the name of “Federation” together, spreading its concept throughout Europe and creating new ones in the Countries with no such organizations. Jean-Claude Imbert was elected as the first president of EFOST. Second general assembly was held at the second congress of the European Federation of National Association of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) in 1995 in Munich and Giuliano Cerulli (1995-1997) was elected as the new president of EFOST by vote unanimously. At that time  Dr. Huylebroek, Dr. Benazzo and Dr. Biosca were the pioneer of EFOST.

The first Specialty Day Meeting at EFORT Congress in Munich, was followed by the other EFORT meetings in 1997 Barcelona, in 1999 Brussels and in 2001 Rhodes. Hans H. Paessler (1997-1999),  Mahmut Nedim Doral (1999-2002), Paco Biosca (2002-2004), Franco Benazzo (2004-2007) and José Huylebroek (2007-to date) served EFOST as president in stated periods.
                       
EFOST has organized six Congresses until now : Munich  2001, with GOTS, Congress President Dr. Hans H. Paessler, Monaco 2003, Congress President Dr. Jean-Claude Imbert,  Madrid 2004, Congress Presidents Dr. Pedro Guillen & Dr. Paco Biosca, Pavia 2006, Congress President Dr. Franco Benazzo, Antalya 2008, Congress President Dr. Mahmut Nedim Doral, Brussels 2010, Congress President Dr. Jose Huylebroek and the 7th is under way of organization and will be held in London 2012 combined with the 4th World Sports Trauma Congress by the organization of  Dr. Roger Hackney and Dr. Nicola Maffulli from UK in London.

A lot of things was carried out since 1993 and we still study for development of EFOST. E-journal, fellowship programs organized by Dr. Kélbérine and their educations, improving national sports traumatology societies, having more comprehensive website and preparing continuous E-Newsletter are other current actions of EFOST. Dr. William Wind and Dr. Michael Rauh from USA were the first two fellows of EFOST fellowship program in 2008 and they took interest with the presentations of their experiences in Belgium, Italy, France and Turkey with senior orthopaedic surgeons in 5th EFOST Meeting. We are quite sure that elected new fellows; Dr. Omer Mei-Dan (Israel) and Dr. Mike Carmont (UK) will be great representatives of the European Sports Medicine Surgeons!

I believe that EFOST family will grow more and more and they will provide a very good concept for Sports Traumatology via working in cooperation with the international associations or societies like ISAKOS, ESSKA, AOSSM, SLARD… With the help of this kind of societies we will get into the internationally standardized concepts for the treatment of the athletes and improve that concept in Europe and all of the world.

Mahmut Nedim DORAL, MD