Newsletter March 2023: Guidelines Committee 2022 report

Peter Kranke – Chair of the ESAIC Guidelines Committee
Sylvia Daamen, Pierre Harlet and Sophie Debouche

The ESAIC Guidelines Committee has established several task forces to elaborate guidelines on the related subject. The task forces are made up of anaesthesiologists nominated by the Taskforce chairs to include expertise from the necessary scientific fields. Others complement these individuals with particular interest and enthusiasm as task force members and as part of a wider advisory group. The guidelines production follows a rigorous methodology, assisted by a qualified methodologist. After literature searches and appraisal of papers, the task force experts can produce scientifically robust recommendations for clinical practice.

In 2022, three ESAIC Guidelines were published.

• Regional anaesthesia in patients on antithrombotic drugs. Joint ESAIC/ESRA guidelines. Kietaibl S. et al., European Journal of Anaesthesiology 2022; 39:100-132
• Preoperative fasting in children A guideline from the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care. Frykholm P et al., Eur J Anaesthesiol 2022; 39:4–25
• Perioperative management of neuromuscular blockade: A European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care guideline. Fuchs-Buder T. et al, Epub 2022 Nov 15. (published in full 2023 Feb 1;40(2):82-94).

Additionally, the committee and task forces were working on nine other guidelines. The table below gives an overview of the ongoing guidelines.

In the second part of 2022, the guidelines committee launched two updates of already published guidelines. Prof Massimo Lamperti is the task force chair on the second update of the preoperative evaluation guideline. Prof Federico Bilotta is chairing the task force on updating adult preoperative fasting.

The Guidelines Committee’s activities are increasing yearly, and the committee’s goal is to provide solid and applicable recommendations for anaesthesiology and intensive care practices.