The Mediterranean Society of Coloproctology (MSCP) has already accomplished its XII biennial Congress as a 4th Joint Meeting with the Mediterranean Society of Pelvic Floor Disorders (MSPFD)–Shafik’s Foundation for Science and, for the first time, associated with the International Society of University Colon & Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS), held in Cairo, Egypt on March 2–3, 2023 in Grand Nile Tower Hotel (Fig. 1).

It is important to underline that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the delay of any MSCP meetings and to the loss of members as a result of unfortunate health issues or just distancing due to the loss of social contact. With the aim to palliate the pandemic confinement, frequent video and streaming platforms assisted our activity during this period, aiming to avoid the loss of knowledge in colorectal diseases between members, executive members and interested participants. Nevertheless, virtual activities never bring the feeling of meeting people personally for intellectual exchanges.

The MSCP Biennial & Joint Meeting began with a special opening conference about Pharaoh’s Proctologists Surgeons, outstandingly developed by X. Delgadillo (Switzerland), in the presence of a huge and very interested local audience. During the meeting, other subjects were discussed and presented by outstanding invited speakers from Mediterranean and other countries around the world.

The second session, addressing oncological treatments, was led by S. Ramuscello (Italy), who presented a deeply interesting enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol in colorectal cancer, followed by F. Cimino (Italy), who created a lot of expectation with a talk entitled Immunological Microenvironment of Rectal Adenocarcinoma. Finally, X. Delgadillo (Switzerland) presented the innovative treatment of pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) in colorectal cancer peritoneal metastasis. All subjects prompted enormous debate within the audience and a solid basis to consider in daily surgical practice for each specialist.

The functional session was outstandingly presented by M. Pramateftakis (Greece) with Robotics in Colorectal Surgery and F. Boffi (Italy) with Tailoring Surgery for ODS (obstructed defecation syndrome); both presentations were followed by a very enthusiastic audience bringing many relevant conclusions.

The main video session brought important information about robotic and laparoscopic surgery. Speakers had the occasion to explain the latest developments in Perineal Hernia Repair Using Biological Meshes by M. Pramateftakis (Greece) and the application of transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) in colorectal cancer by S. Ramuscello (Italy), topics that captured the attention of the big audience and predictably led to prolonged and very active debate.

The last day of the congress was dedicated to interesting controversies about miscellaneous proctological disorders, highlights on essential anal pain presented at the Shafik’s Oration, and later the live operative transmission providing new highlights on recent surgical and specialized techniques.

Egypt, and particularly the famous city of Cairo, provided all participants with a warm welcome and hospitality. A. Shafik, I. Shafik and O. El-Sibai, as the council local organizing committee, accomplished their task outstandingly. A fantastic visit to the Great Egyptian Museum gave the faculty and participants of the joint meeting a superb impression of the splendour of ancient Egyptian culture, the time of the great pharaohs and an insight into its future opening exposition, creating huge expectation among all participants (Fig. 2).

Delegates outside the Great Egyptian Museum

The museum visit was followed by the official congress dinner, held in the Great Egyptian Museum’s restaurant, giving invited speakers a feeling of “dinning in the past”. These cultural activities helped to solidify friendship and cooperation among trainees, delegates, chairmen and international invited speakers.

During the scheduled MSCP’s agenda, the executive committee accepted the candidature of Venice, as the next venue of the Third Mediterranean Inter-Season Course, to be hosted by Italy in 2024. The announcement created a lot of interest between members, because of this wonderful venue, the well-known Venetian channels and the wonderful Piazza St Marco. The scientific and organizing committee aim to propose new and interactive content during the course. S. Ramuscello, University Hospital of Venice, will be the chair of the local organizing committee. All delegates are very excited about more news, which will come soon.

Following standardized regulations and procedures of the MSCP [1], the executive committee, during its scheduled agenda held in Cairo, decided that no changes will occur inside their structure, until a new election process, which will be run during the next Inter-Season Course, in 2024 in Venice.

All MSCP executive committee members unanimously welcomed the candidature of Tangier, Morocco as the next venue for our biennial meeting, to be organized in 2025. An extraordinary venue that will welcome everyone, by the experienced former local committee, guided by M. Tekkal (Morocco), which will assume their engagements to prepare within a wonderful atmosphere associated with all those enthusiastic colleagues from Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries. It will be an unforgettable event, tailored specially for really demanding audiences.

The program will include several algorithms and futuristic trends in colorectal surgery; it will include new modalities of “single case presentations”, “face to face pathology discussions”, “essential dilemmas & debates in colorectal cancer” and special sessions in minimally invasive and robotic surgery.

More details about future events, courses and meetings will be available in the forthcoming newsletter on the society’s website: http://www.mscp-online.org.