The European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting was held in Munich on 25 – 29 August. The meeting is the biggest cardiovascular forum and attracts cardiologists from all over the world. John Pepper presented a paper at the meeting called “Individualised external support of the Marfan aortic root using computer aided design and rapid protyping to manufacture a customised implant: characteristics and follow up of the first 30 recipients” as part of an abstract session covering challenges in treating the aorta in Marfan syndrome and in coarctation.