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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.

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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.


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Sustainability

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


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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Newsletter 2020

Ground Breaking Research

a3CRASH-3: What is the relevant outcome we are looking for?

Marc Giménez-Milà
Robert G. Hahn
gimimarc@gmail.com

CRASH-3 is a recent controlled clinical trial that deals with the potential benefit of tranexamic acid in isolated Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (1). The topic is highly relevant and appropriate, especially after results of CRASH-2 and WOMEN where tranexamic acid administration showed benefits in trauma and obstetric haemorrhage (2,3).

In CRASH-3, the authors recruited 12,373 adult TBI patients who had a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 12 or lower or any intracranial bleeding on CT scan, and no major extracranial bleeding. Within 3 h of the injury, the treatment group received a bolus of 1 g of tranexamic acid followed by an infusion of 1 g over 8 hours.

At 28 days, treatment was associated with an incidence of head injury-related death of 18.5% compared with 19.8% in the placebo group (855 vs 892 events; risk ratio [RR] 0·94 [95% CI 0·86–1·02]). Subgroup analysis showed that tranexamic acid administration was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of head injury-related death in the presence of mild to moderate TBI (RR 0·78 [95% CI 0·64–0·95]) but not in patients presenting with severe TBI (0·99 [95% CI 0·91–1·07]. Therefore, the results suggest a beneficial effect of early administration of tranexamic acid, but only in mild-moderate TBI (GCS 9-12). Known side effects of tranexamic, such as seizures and thrombotic events, were studied, but there were no significant differences between treatment and placebo.

CRASH-3 represents a well-conducted international trial with participation of centres from both low- and high-income countries across the globe, which makes the results generalisable worldwide.

Remarkably, the protocol was modified in the middle of the study shortening the injury-intervention time interval from 8 hours to 3 hours, which might be due to inefficacy in the original interval excluding 28% patients for the final analysis.

Two interesting editorials discussing the CRASH-3 study have been published. They have given divergent messages, one having an optimistic tone (4) and another being less optimistic (5).

Persisting unanswered questions makes it somehow adventurous to translate the results of CRASH-3 into clinical practice. The types of neurosurgical interventions performed in the different centres, the neuromonitoring approach used and the administration of corticosteroids are some of the details not clearly stated in the protocol. Also, long-term outcomes are not described, such as >28- day mortality and physician-measured functional status scale (Glasgow outcome Scale) upon discharge. Despite the limitations, we still conclude that early administration of tranexamic acid reduced head-injury related deaths in patients with mild to moderate TBI, while there was no effect in patients with severe TBI.

References:

  1. CRASH-3 trial collaborators . Lancet. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(19)32233-0
  2. CRASH-2 trial collaborators, Shakur H, Roberts I, Bautista R et al). Lancet 2010; 376(9734):23–32. https:// doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60835-5
  3. Woman Trial Collaborators. Lancet 2017; 389(10084):2105–2116. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30638-4
  4. Cap AP. Lancet 2019https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(19)32312-8
  5. Fabio Silvio Taccone, Giuseppe Citerio Nino Stocchetti Intensive Care Med 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007 s00134-019-05879-5