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 2024

ESAIC CTN Study - EuPreCHO

European study on perioperative management and outcome following Preoperative Transthoracic Echocardiography in noncardiac surgery patients 

The ESAIC vision, “Together for improved health outcomes, patient safety, and greater environmental sustainability across anaesthesiology and intensive care”, is put into action in multiple research activities. Excellence and cooperation or more appropriately excellence through cooperation are the pillars on which the ESAIC Clinical Trail Network (CTN) relays. 

The CTN was established in 2010 with the aim of fostering large research cooperations in the field of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Peri-Operative Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Pain Medicine. The ESAIC research team supports study and data management and, even more crucial for the conduction of large-scale projects, it provides access to an extended network of researchers and centres across Europe. Over the last decade, this tremendous support by the ESAIC allowed the successful conduction of several large international trials (https://www.esaic.org/research/clinical-trial-network/published-trials/) that contributed to improved perioperative care.  

In 2023 the project “EuPreCHO: European study on perioperative management and outcome following Preoperative Transthoracic Echocardiography in noncardiac surgery patients” was awarded with the ESAIC CTN Grant.  

Why is EuPreCHO necessary? 

In August 2022, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) published updated guidelines [1] (previous version 2014) including recommendations on preoperative transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). Early investigations suggest a substantial increase in patients qualifying for preoperative TTE under these guidelines. In many countries, perioperative services are not well equipped to handle a surge in preoperative TTEs without risking surgical delays. The widespread adoption of an expanded use of preoperative TTE could significantly impact resource utilisation also due to downstream investigations.  

This pressure exerted on healthcare structures is of particular concern because the impact of preoperative TTE on outcomes is controversial, and the evidence is mostly derived from administrative databases [2-8]. There is also a knowledge gap in terms of what changes in perioperative management are derived from TTE information in current daily practice and what their impact on outcomes may be. Further, a secondary analysis in a large international cohort [9] suggests that the criteria endorsed by the ESC guidelines to define the class of recommendation of TTE may not be efficient. 

Figure 1. Knowledge gaps regarding the use of TTE before noncardiac surgery. 

EuPreCHO aims to answer the following 3 research questions with regard to patients undergoing intermediate and high-risk noncardiac surgery procedures: 

  1. does the perioperative management of patients evaluated with vs those not evaluated with preoperative TTE differ in current clinical practice?  
  1. does the outcome of patients evaluated with vs those not evaluated with preoperative TTE differ in current clinical practice?  
  1. what factors (model) enhance the prediction of major pathologies in preoperative TTE? 

How is the study designed? 

EuPreCHO is designed as a prospective cohort with a 2:1 sampling ratio, i.e., it aims at recruiting nearly 5400 patients with and 2700 patients without preoperative TTE. Data on perioperative management (e.g., cardiological work-up, intraoperative haemodynamic monitoring, or ICU admissions) will be collected. The focus will be on patient-centred outcomes at 30 days, i.e., disability-free survival and days-alive-and-out-of-hospital. The data collected in the TTE patients will allow to generate models to improve selection of patients for preoperative TTE, i.e., to maximise the number of detected major pathologies per conducted test. 

Why would your hospital participate? 

Conduction of EuPreCHO and answering its questions will require the joint efforts of anesthesiologists from all over Europe cooperating once more within the framework of the ESAIC Clinical Trial Network. Any hospital in Europe or with comparable health care is welcome to join this venture as a study centre and contribute to the generation of clinical practice-changing evidence within a strong and successful research and cooperation network. As in previous CTN studies, the EuPreCHO cohort also provides a unique opportunity to nest local or national cohorts to maximise the knowledge gains from this massive effort. 

We currently have 35 centres registered in 18 countries. Join us. 

Together for improved health outcomes. 

How to obtain more information? 

Detailed information is available in the study website  

at https://esaic.org/study/euprecho/   

Study centre registration occurs online via the dedicated “Call for Centres form” https://esaic.org/research/clinical-trial-network/call-for-centres/ 

For additional information on the opportunity of nested cohorts within EuPreCHO, please do not hesitate to contact us at giovanna.luratibuse@med.uni-duesseldorf.de. Of note, cohorts nested in EuPreCHO require a separate ethical approval and dedicated informed consent form since ESAIC is not a sponsor of the nested cohorts.  

Authors

  • Giovanna Lurati Buse

References

  1. Halvorsen, S., et al., 2022 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular assessment and management of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. Eur Heart J, 2022. 43(39): p. 3826-3924. 
  2. AbuSharar, S.P., L. Bess, and E. Hennrikus, Pre-operative echocardiograms in acute fragility hip fractures: How effective are the guidelines? Medicine (Baltimore), 2021. 100(12): p. e25151. 
  3. Canty, D.J., et al., One-year results of the pilot multicentre randomised trial of preoperative focused cardiac ultrasound in hip fracture surgery. Anaesth Intensive Care, 2019. 47(2): p. 207-208. 
  4. Chang, H.Y., W.T. Chang, and Y.W. Liu, Application of transthoracic echocardiography in patients receiving intermediate- or high-risk noncardiac surgery. PLoS One, 2019. 14(4): p. e0215854. 
  5. Levitan, E.B., et al., Pre-operative echocardiography among patients with coronary artery disease in the United States Veterans Affairs healthcare system: A retrospective cohort study. BMC Cardiovasc Disord, 2016. 16(1): p. 173. 
  6. Pallesen, J., et al., The effects of preoperative focused cardiac ultrasound in high-risk patients: A randomised controlled trial (PREOPFOCUS). Acta Anaesthesiol Scand, 2022. 66(10): p. 1174-1184. 
  7. Tank, A., et al., Evaluation of Appropriate Use of Preoperative Echocardiography before Major Abdominal Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Anesthesiology, 2021. 135(5): p. 854-863. 
  8. Wijeysundera, D.N., et al., Association of echocardiography before major elective non-cardiac surgery with postoperative survival and length of hospital stay: population based cohort study. BMJ, 2011. 342: p. d3695. 
  9. Stroda, A., et al., Pathological findings associated with the updated European Society of Cardiology 2022 guidelines for preoperative cardiac testing: an observational cohort modelling study. Br J Anaesth, 2024. 132(4): p. 675-684.