Login to myESAIC Membership
Back

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.


Back

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.


Back

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.


Back

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.

Back

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.


Back

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.


Back

Sustainability

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


Back

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.


Back

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.


Back

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.


Back

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.


Membership opportunities
at the ESAIC

Newsletter 2020

Newsletter October 2020: Online Survey on COVID-19 Exposure in Anaesthetists and Health Risks

 

SARS-CoV-2 continues to be among the most challenging global health crises for decades. Anaesthesiologists may have contact with COVID-19 patients in numerous settings, e.g. (emergency) surgery or critical care. Ways and mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 transmission are still under investigation, yet both direct droplet transmission, as well as indirect transmission via aerosols, seem to be routes of infection 1,2.

During the first spread of infections around the world, reports have emerged that certain interventions in anaesthesia (e.g. endotracheal intubation) may pose a special risk to participating healthcare providers. In a recent prospective survey, a combined primary endpoint of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection or new symptoms requiring self-isolation or hospitalisation occurred in 10.7% of cases in providers involved in tracheal intubations in COVID-19 patients 3.

Another study reported COVID-like symptoms in 26.2% of participants after a work-related exposure, whereas “only” 12.1% became seroconverters (irrespective of work-related or community-associated exposure)4. Either way, data suggest that especially anaesthesia-related interventions may be present an extremely high risk since many of the airway procedures performed in anaesthesia and critical care are classified as an aerosol-generating procedure (AGP). AGP are medical procedures that can result in the release of airborne particles (aerosols) from the respiratory tract when treating someone who is suspected or known to be suffering from an infectious agent transmitted wholly or partly by the airborne or droplet route.

It is unclear whether the reported high infection rates were truly related to work-related activities first and foremost, or whether community-acquired cases make up for the major share in infections in these cohorts. Nevertheless, it stands to reason that through the nature of their everyday tasks, anaesthetists are subject to increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. It is of critical importance for both reasons of the workforce and patient safety to further evaluate the true extent of work-related exposure and infections. As numbers of SARS-CoV-2 cases appear to be on the rise around the world once again, we must seek to learn as much as possible from the previous months and be prepared as well as possible for the future.

In order to achieve this, a group of researchers together with the President of the ESA, Prof. Kai Zacharowski, and with the support of the ESA Board of Directors, initiated a large survey among all member states of ESA asking for past exposure to SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 patients among anaesthetists. To get a better understanding of the hazards from occupational exposure, a few questions regarding the availability and implementation of personal protective equipment and preventive measures in the hospital, possible infections related to work-specific tasks but also potential risk from activities outside the hospital were included in the survey.

If you have not done so yet, we would like to kindly ask you to take no more than five minutes to complete our online questionnaire and help us understand better what needs to be done to keep both patients and physicians as safe as possible as the pandemic continues to last. You can find the survey link below.

 

Thank you very much for your valuable time! We will keep you informed about the results of the survey.

Your valuable contribution is much appreciated!

 

ESA Board of Directors and Organising Committee 1

  • Benedikt Schmid, Prof. Peter Kranke and Prof. Patrick Meybohm (Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Therapy, Wuerzburg University Hospital); Prof. Kai Zacharowski (Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt / ESA President)

Results will be presented on the Coronavirus COVID-19 Resource Hub as well as in the format of a journal contribution.

 

[maxbutton id=”1″ url=”https://www.soscisurvey.de/ESA-COVID/” text=”Take the Survey Now” ]

 

References

  1. Santarpia, J. L. et al. (n.d.) doi:10.1101/2020.03.23.20039446.
  2. Sommerstein, R. et al.. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 9, 100 (2020).
  3. El‐Boghdadly, K., Wong, D. J. N., Johnstone, C., et al,.. Anaesthesia (2020) doi:10.1111/anae.15205.
  4. Morcuende, M., Guglielminotti, J. & Landau, R.. Anesthesia Analgesia Publish Ahead of Print, (2020).

 

More Newsletter Articles

Visit our Euroanaesthesia 2020 Website for more news on everything related to the virtual congress.

Visit our COVID-19 Resource Hub for other news and resources.