The EVF congresses are not a show in a strict sense or in the sense of ELP. But still, its touring around in Europe offers each country the possibility to combine a distinguished local faculty with the invited speakers.

“Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends”, is a live album by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the revolutionary progressive rock-band ELP, in 1974. But Keith Emerson disappeared and Greg Laker died, both in 2016 and the only remaining member of that famous and truly progressive rock group is Carl Palmer. Their “Pictures of an Exhibition”, a rock adaptation of the composition of Mussorgksy, was a milestone in rock music. A milestone in the medical sense was also the foundation of the European Venous forum 20 years ago in French Lyon. But in contrast to ELP, the European Venous Forum is still alive, and celebrating its 20th birthday in 2019 and hopefully “Staying Alive” (Bee Gees 1977). Of course, many things have changed and many things have been achieved since -I recall the EVF How and the HOW Plus courses in the last years – but the original mission to develop education, scientific knowledge, research and clinical expertise of the highest quality and establish standards in the field of venous disease, remains unchallenged.

The EVF congresses are not a show in a strict sense or in the sense of ELP. But still, its touring around in Europe offers each country, where the congress resides for a few days, the possibility to combine a distinguished local faculty with the invited European (and overseas) speakers. Furthermore the industry sessions allow the presentation of the latest news in a specific field, presented by a respected, invited faculty. But, apart from these sessions, a very important accent is on the numerous oral and electronic abstract sessions, which stimulates real debates with the presenters, who have to defend their results and their conclusions. Thus EVF congresses are a very interesting mixture of different animated sessions and offers a wide variety of topics, which are this year: the various treatments of varicose veins, the rationale for ulcer treatment, compression and its new devices, lymphatic disorders and the problem of deep vein thrombosis and the post-thrombotic syndrome.

The EVF 2019 scientific programme didactic sessions will cover the areas of

    Various Treatments of Varicose Veins
    Rationale for Ulcer Treatment
    Compression and its new Devices
    Lymphatic Disorders
    Problem of Deep Vein Thrombosis and the Post-thrombotic Syndrome