News

Friday December 17, 16:30 – 17:15   –  Channel 2 This review of important papers in general anaesthesiology will be given by Professor Anthony Absalom, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen University, Netherlands. He says: “We look back wistfully on another tumultuous year during which anesthesiologists around the world have been at the forefront caring for the most unwell patients (with and without COVID-19) in challenging circumstances. Despite the challenges of the...

Tzima Maria,MD,MSc,PhD(c) Hippokrateion General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Greece martzi88@yahoo.gr Albert Einstein had once said, ‘a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new’. Last year marks the 10th anniversary of the Helsinki Declaration on patient safety in Anaesthesiology and September 17th is established as World Patient Safety Day. Nowadays, there is a great interest in patient safety and foundations have been established to deal with patient safety.1 When it comes to...

Dr Magdalena Fleming and Dr Carolina Soledad are taking part in the ESAIC Mentorship Programme 2020 – 2022 and earlier this year started the Mentee Club, and they continue to coordinate it. All Mentees currently participating in the Mentorship Programme have been invited to participate. The Mentee Club is run independently of the Mentorship Programme, and it is not an ESAIC initiative although the Research Team provides some administrative support. You began your career with lofty goals and b...

Cheah Kean Seng,MD Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Tallaght University Hospital dkscheah@gmail.com High flow nasal oxygen therapy (HFNO2) is gaining popularity of late and rapidly recognised as new oxygen therapy in the treatment of respiratory failure, and the fame exploded exponentially after the COVID-19 pandemic. HFNO2 was initially invented for neonates to provide continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The conventional tight-fitting face mask makes neonates vulnerable to...

Gabriel M. Gurman, MD Chief Editor The question as to why this topic shows up once again in our Newsletter after the splendid editorial written by our co-editor, Dr Liana Valeanu (Gender gap-the discussion is here to stay, ESAIC Newsletter, February 2021) should be asked. The answer is a double one. First, because although that editorial was read by almost 450 members, it did not produce any comment in the Newsletter, as everybody was happy to get become familiar with the subject and nothing mor...

Christopher Blacker, Elena Gjorchevska, Alexandra Trinks, Sanja Golobic, Emelie Risberg ESAIC Trainee Committee Social Networks Task Force trainees-committee@esaic.org The ESAIC trainee network aims to establish a link between all European Anaesthesiology Trainees while putting a variety of ESAIC resources in their service. We are currently represented in various social network platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. We continuously produce, gather and spread information tha...

Daniel Arnal  Chair ESAIC Patient safety and Quality Committee darnal@sensar.org   The vision of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) and its Patient Safety and Quality Committee is to promote quality of care and patient safety through the strategic implementation of the Helsinki Declaration for Patient Safety in Anaesthesiology (HD) followed up with high-quality training and education, endorsed by a robust system of examination and certification. The work of...

Cheah Kean Seng,MD Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Tallaght University Hospital dkscheah@gmail.com Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a common side effect after anaesthesia. It affects up to 30% of post-surgical patients, and 80% among the high risks group¹. PONV is not only common but deemed debilitating for the patient. It is the most common reason for patient’s dissatisfaction after anaesthesia/ surgery. The degree of discomfort is so overwhelming that in one...

Alan Aitkenhead Alan.aitkenhead@notingham.ac.uk John Popovich, the first Executive Director of the original ESA (European Society of Anaesthesiologists), died suddenly early in the morning on 5 September 2021, aged 71 years. John was born and brought up in the USA but spent his whole working life in various European countries, becoming fluent in French, Dutch, Italian and German working for a variety of businesses, including several which sold medical equipment. The ESA was administered initiall...

Gabriel M. Gurman, MD Chief Editor Many years ago, during my residency in anaesthesia and critical care, a patient with a serious comorbidity could only very seldom become a candidate for elective surgery. The postoperative mortality rate was significantly higher in those cases in which a seriously chronically ill patient had to pass a surgical act, mainly on the cavities (thoracic, abdominal). This is the explanation for the term chronic critical illness (CCI) being introduced in the anaesthesi...