Dear colleagues,

The Ibero-African American Meeting on Trauma and Emergency Surgery (RIAATCE) is scheduled to take place every two years between the world trauma congresses.

The first edition took place in Coimbra, Portugal, in 2013, and the second in Campinas, Brazil, in 2015. The third was scheduled for this year in Alicante, Spain, but for reasons beyond our control it has not been possible to organize it.

To this extent, in good time and as an alternative, we considered the possibility of organizing RIAATCE 2017 in two stages, in Campinas, again, on May 18, during the Intergastro & Trauma / Congress of the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES / WCES), and in Basel, on August 17, during the Congress of the International Society of Surgery (ISS / WCS), taking advantage of the presence of many colleagues from various provenances, for which it was decisive the support of the respective responsibles, Gustavo Fraga and Ken Boffard.

Our thanks,

Carlos Mesquita

General & Emergency Surgeon at Coimbra University Hospital