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About

The ESAIC is dedicated to supporting professionals in anaesthesiology and intensive care by serving as the hub for development and dissemination of valuable educational, scientific, research, and networking resources.


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Congresses

The ESAIC hosts the Euroanaesthesia and Focus Meeting congresses that serve as platforms for cutting-edge science and innovation in the field. These events bring together experts, foster networking, and facilitate knowledge exchange in anaesthesiology, intensive care, pain management, and perioperative medicine. Euroanaesthesia is one of the world’s largest and most influential scientific congresses for anaesthesia professionals. Held annually throughout Europe, our congress is a contemporary event geared towards education, knowledge exchange and innovation in anaesthesia, intensive care, pain and perioperative medicine, as well as a platform for immense international visibility for scientific research.


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Professional Growth

The ESAIC's mission is to foster and provide exceptional training and educational opportunities. The ESAIC ensures the provision of robust and standardised examination and certification systems to support the professional development of anaesthesiologists and to ensure outstanding future doctors in the field of anaesthesiology and intensive care.


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Research

The ESAIC aims to advance patient outcomes and contribute to the progress of anaesthesiology and intensive care evidence-based practice through research. The ESAIC Clinical Trial Network (CTN), the Academic Contract Research Organisation (A-CRO), the Research Groups and Grants all contribute to the knowledge and clinical advances in the peri-operative setting.


Learn more about the ESAIC Clinical Trial Network (CTN) and the associated studies.

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EU Projects

The ESAIC is actively involved as a consortium member in numerous EU funded projects. Together with healthcare leaders and practitioners, the ESAIC's involvement as an EU project partner is another way that it is improving patient outcomes and ensuring the best care for every patient.


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Patient Safety

The ESAIC aims to promote the professional role of anaesthesiologists and intensive care physicians and enhance perioperative patient outcomes by focusing on quality of care and patient safety strategies. The Society is committed to implementing the Helsinki Declaration and leading patient safety projects.


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Sustainability

To ESAIC is committed to implementing the Glasgow Declaration and drive initiatives towards greater environmental sustainability across anaesthesiology and intensive care in Europe.


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Partnerships

The ESAIC works in collaboration with industry, national societies, and specialist societies to promote advancements in anaesthesia and intensive care. The Industry Partnership offers visibility and engagement opportunities for industry participants with ESAIC members, facilitating understanding of specific needs in anaesthesiology and in intensive care. This partnership provides resources for education and avenues for collaborative projects enhancing science, education, and patient safety. The Specialist Societies contribute to high-quality educational opportunities for European anaesthesiologists and intensivists, fostering discussion and sharing, while the National Societies, through NASC, maintain standards, promote events and courses, and facilitate connections. All partnerships collectively drive dialogue, learning, and growth in the anaesthesiology and intensive care sector.


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Guidelines

Guidelines play a crucial role in delivering evidence-based recommendations to healthcare professionals. Within the fields of anaesthesia and intensive care, guidelines are instrumental in standardizing clinical practices and enhancing patient outcomes. For many years, the ESAIC has served as a pivotal platform for facilitating continuous advancements, improving care standards and harmonising clinical management practices across Europe.


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Publications

With over 40 years of publication history, the EJA (European Journal of Anaesthesiology) has established itself as a highly respected and influential journal in its field. It covers a wide range of topics related to anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, including perioperative medicine, pain management, critical care, resuscitation, and patient safety.


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Membership

Becoming a member of ESAIC implies becoming a part of a vibrant community of nearly 8,000 professionals who exchange best practices and stay updated on the latest developments in anaesthesiology, intensive care and perioperative medicine. ESAIC membership equips you with the tools and resources necessary to enhance your daily professional routine, nurture your career growth, and play an active role in advancing anaesthesiology, intensive care and perioperative medicine.


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Congress Newsletter 2021

EA21 Newsletter: Session 15L1 Pain management in the elderly: how, when and why?

Sunday 19 December, 09:45 – 10:30 – Channel 4

This Sunday morning session on pain in the elderly was presented by Dr Peter Lee, Consultant Anaesthesiologist Bon Secours Hospital Cork, Ireland.

“The undertreatment of postoperative pain in older people has been recognised as a problem in hospitals worldwide for at least 20 years,” he explained, “As well as the obvious suffering associated with moderate or severe pain, older people will also experience adverse cardiovascular and respiratory effects, delays in mobilisation and discharge, and are put at high risk of developing perioperative neurocognitive disorders such as delirium or delayed neurocognitive recovery.”

He asked why, despite numerous guidelines and increasing awareness of the issue, does this deficit continue to arise? “There can be real difficulties in assessing pain in older people, particularly where cognitive impairment is present,” he explained. “Pain assessment tools must be appropriate to a patient’s cognitive abilities and their ability to communicate their pain. Every anaesthetist should have access to, and be comfortable in the use of, appropriate tools for pain assessment, both self-report and observational. Even then there may be sociocultural reasons why older people are sometimes slow to report their pain or seek analgesia.”

The appropriate treatment and amelioration of pain in older people have its challenges. Age-related physiological change is both complex and subject to wide inter-individual variation. An anaesthesiologist working in the field must be aware of likely physiological changes, and the appropriate adjustments that should be made to the choice of analgesia used, and to the dose and time intervals for administration. The likely presence in many older people of multiple co-morbidities and consequent polypharmacy can narrow the therapeutic options available and increase the incidence of adverse effects. As many as 1 in 10 of the over 65s may be frail, a condition that heightens all of the general challenges of pain management in the elderly.

Dr Lee said: “A key part of the solution is the formulation of a perioperative analgesia plan for every older patient that takes into consideration all of the challenges outlined. Thereafter balanced multimodal analgesia is key, with the choice of analgesia and route of administration carefully tailored to the patient. Regional anaesthesia is likely to be an important component, with a strong evidence base present for certain types of surgery.”

He concluded that regardless of the mode of analgesia, frequent careful reassessment and titration of medication should improve pain control in older patients and reduce the incidence of a host of adverse effects.

Read More of our special newsletter covering our virtual congress