The International Compression Club (ICC) is a partnership between academics, clinicians and industry focused upon understanding the role of compression in the management of different clinical conditions. The ICC meet regularly and from these meetings have produced a series of eight consensus publications upon topics ranging from evidence-based compression to compression trials for arm lymphoedema. All of the current consensus documents can be accessed on the ICC website (http://www.icc-compressionclub.com/index.php). In May 2011, the ICC met in Brussels during the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) annual conference. With almost 50 members in attendance, the day-long ICC meeting challenged a series of dogmas and myths that exist when considering compression therapies. In preparation for a discussion on beliefs surrounding compression, a forum was established on the ICC website where presenters were able to display a summary of their thoughts upon each dogma to be discussed during the meeting. Members of the ICC could then provide comments on each topic thereby widening the discussion to the entire membership of the ICC rather than simply those who were attending the EWMA conference. This article presents an extended report of the issues that were discussed, with each dogma covered in a separate section. The ICC discussed 12 'dogmas' with areas 1 through 7 dedicated to materials and application techniques used to apply compression with the remaining topics (8 through 12) related to the indications for using compression.

The grouts are suspensions containing cement used in the technique of prestressing by post-tension. Cement, from its chemical nature, protects the wire ropes (strands) from corrosion. To be able to play correctly this protective role, the grout must remain homogeneous and must entirely cover the strands. The lack of stability of the grouts, which results in packing or sedimentation, is a major problem. In this article, we try to correlate the rheological properties of the grout with its capacity to remain homogeneous. We show that an increase in the concentration of superplasticizer, a polymer solution, decreases the thixotropic behavior of the grout, but on the other hand, increases the effects of sedimentation. We explain this phenomenon by the modification of the structure of a three-dimensional network in relation to the interparticle interactions.

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the good agreement between computed and measured AVP in different cases of valve incompetence indicates that the VRS is quite a realistic model, with the potential to simulate the results of surgery or compression therapy.

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