News

Inês Ferreira Vieira Since the very beginning of my residency in Anaesthesiology, I knew I wanted to do an internship abroad. What better way to get out of your comfort zone and meet a different reality? The idea of applying for the Trainee Exchange Program followed naturally. I was thrilled when the response came to say I was accepted into the Program! Given my interest in both cardiac and paediatric anaesthesia, I wanted to deepen my knowledge of cardiac anaesthesia and see congenital cardiac...

Alexander Zarbock – Chair of the ESAIC Research Committee Sylvia Daamen, Pierre Harlet, Saman Sepehr, Sophie Debouche, and Julia Dowell This has been a busy and successful year for the Research Department, with many ongoing projects. ESAIC Awards and Grants We are happy to announce that in 2022 a total of 240.000€ was distributed among Research Grant winners. The grants were the Andreas Hoeft’s Grant (70€k, dedicated in 2022 to Anaesthesiology – winner: Daqing Ma), the Rese...

ESAIC runs a Mentorship Programme to promote the professional development of young researchers through one-to-one mentoring by experienced investigators. It enables the development of a personal relationship and provides individual support for the mentee in their chosen field of research. The aims of the Programme are: To preserve and transfer accumulated professional knowledge within the anaesthesia and intensive care community To support individual academic anaesthetists in achieving their po...

Idit Matot Chair of the ESAIC Scientific Committee Finally, after two years of online congresses, in 2022, we could gather in Milan for Euroanaesthesia and get back to handshakes, hugs, smiles and the excitement of the congress.  The remarkable opening ceremony with two exceptional plenary speakers, Dr Kate Prior and Prof. Kai Zacharowski, was just an amazing signal of what’s to follow. We are proud to have been able to organize an innovative and vibrant programme, boosting the Simlab and...

Patricio Gonzalez-Pizarro Chair of ESAIC Sustainability Committee Green means go! Sustainability is a hot topic. It is everywhere these days, and while we may be getting saturated with the word, we must turn our attention to the concept, especially its environmental dimension. Climate change is a defining issue for our generation. The carbon footprint of clinical practice accounts for 4.7% of total European emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and the EU ranks as the third largest contributor to...

Stefan De Hert Chair of the ESAIC Education & Training Committee The Education and Training Committee is an umbrella committee overseeing and coordinating the education and training activities at ESAIC. 2022 has been a successful year; below are the main achievements: Education Tuesday – the education activity has been released every Tuesday and touches upon various subjects for different learners, from young trainees to expert anesthesiologists in various fields. Podcasts have been a real...

Taskforce chair: Fuchs-Buder, Thomas CHRU Nancy Chef du pôle Bloc Opératoire Departement d’anesthésie, réanimation & médecine périoperatoire Summary of recommendations (R) R1: We recommend using a muscle relaxant to facilitate tracheal intubation (1A: high-quality evidence, strong recommendation). R2: We recommend using muscle relaxants to reduce pharyngeal and/or laryngeal injury following endotracheal intubation (1C: low quality of evidence, strong recommendation). R3: We reco...

The Industry Task Force (ILTF) celebrates its first birthday in its current constitution. The ILTF fosters the relationship between industry partners and ESAIC. The support of industry partners is essential to help accomplish ESAIC’s “RESSC mission”: Research, Education, Safety, Sustainability, and Congresses. These are the crossroads at which we interact with one another. So let’s walk true of them and look at what we accomplished together and where we are heading in 202...

Gabriel M. Gurman, MD Chief Editor The fact that in the last few years, I am increasingly interested in the history of my speciality is easily understandable: the ageing process implies too often the need to look into the past and try to understand things which, by that time, have not been evident and apparent. One of the questions about the history of anaesthesia is what happened after that memorable day of the 16th of Oct., 1846, when Bill Morton, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, U...

Kean Seng Cheah, MBBS, FCAI Case description: Stiff person syndrome is a rare autoimmune neurological syndrome that manifests as fluctuating rigidity and spasms of axial or limb muscles¹. This condition was first described in 1956 by Moersch & Woltman from a case series of 14 patients with a similar presentation of muscle rigidity¹. The pathophysiology of this syndrome is autoimmune driven due to the presence of antibodies against Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase (GAD), the rate-limiting enzyme...