Rome, Italy, September 20-23, 2000
The XIX Annual ESRA Congress took place at the Sheraton Rome Hotel. This was also the third joint ESRA-EuroPain meeting. Nearly 1800 delegates from 53 countries came to the Eternal City of Rome to participate in a highly successful meeting. No other city reflects better the spiritual dimension of the year 2000 than Rome, the capital of the ancient Roman empire, the centre of the Christian faith for many centuries, with its profound and lasting influence on Western culture.
2000 is the 20th anniversary of ESRA's foundation. It also heralds the start of ESRA's new philosophy of working together with other societies such as EuroPain and European Society of Obstetric Anaesthesia (ESOA) to teach and promote the use of regional techniques for surgery and management of acute and chronic pain.
During the Opening Ceremony Drs. Vadalouca (President ESRA), Nicosia (President Local Organizing Committee), Wilder-Smith (President EuroPain) and Michael Mulroy (President ASRA) welcomed the audience. Dr. Selander represented AstraZeneca and handed over the ESRA 2000 Carl Koller Award and the ESRA 2000 Research Grant Award to two young researchers.
The ESRA scientific program in Rome nicely reflected its educational goals. The 18 Panel Discussions, 21 Workshops and 2 Pro & Con Discussions all highlighted crucial aspects in our field. An international forum of specialists was invited to lead the discussions to ensure the exchange of knowledge and expertise between colleagues. The didactic sessions, particularly those related to use of peripheral nerve blocks were very well-attended. As a tribute to the dynamic role of the Italian ESRA section, the scientific program featured four Italian language workshops. This year, the main topics for the plenary lectures of EuroPain were drug combinations in pain management. The EuroPain Forum was dedicated to the long-term use of opioids in chronic pain and the working parties concentrated on basic research and clinical management of pain. Two new features were breakfast and luncheon workshops.
The highlights of this year's congress were:
• ESRA Carl Koller award
• The ESRA Lecture presented by Francesco Nicosia, about "Regional
Anaesthesia and Outcome".
• The ASRA Lecture presented by Michael Mulroy, "How can RA techniques
contribute to efficiency in the new trend to outpatient surgery?"
ESRA Carl Koller Award
The annual ESRA congress is an occasion to acknowledge special contributions in our field. The Carl Koller Award honors a lifetime dedication to regional anaesthesia and pain therapy. This year's Carl Koller Awardee was Prof. Phulchand Prithvi Raj, known around the world as "Raj". Raj has written more than a hundred scientific articles and four textbooks on regional anaesthesia and pain. He started Pain Relief Centers in Dallas, Cincinnati and Houston, wrote three editions of "Practical Management of Pain" and served on the editorial board of Regional Anaesthesia. Raj is also the editor of "Pain Digest" and "Current Review of Pain". His tutorials in practical pain therapy are highly appreciated. Raj was one of the founders of ASRA, the Texas Pain Society, and the World Institute of Pain. In fact he was also one of the founders of ESRA, as he was the coordinator of the International Symposium on Regional Anaesthesia, Heidelberg, Germany, in 1980. It was there that the foundations of ESRA were laid. Dr. Raj has received many international honors of which the Labat Award and the Löfgren Award are the most prestigious ones. Raj is currently Professor at the Department of Anesthesiology, Texas Tech University. ESRA is proud to honor Raj with its highest distinction, the ESRA 2000 Carl Koller Award. Prof. Raj gave this year's Carl Koller Award Lecture entitled: "Has Regional Anaesthesia Met its Challenges?".
ESRA Grants
The ESRA Research Grant rewards the work of young researchers. It is meant to stimulate basic scientific and clinical research in the fields of local anaesthetic pharmacology, surgery, obstetrics and pain management. The ESRA Research Grant Fund supported by AstraZeneca awards up to US $10,000 per year to encourage research in these areas. Details about this research can be found in each issue of the International Monitor and on our website www.esraeurope.org
This year the ESRA 2000 Research Grant was awarded to two young researchers:
1. Maria Dolores López-Alarcón from Spain, with her research topic: "Hydrocolloid dressings as a vehicle for the sustained administration of local anesthetics in painful wounds."
2. Victoria Koutsoukou from Greece, and her research topic: "The effects of ropivacaine on the expression of neutral endopeptidase in skin cells."
The ESRA Board is grateful to Slobodan Gligorijevic and his abstract committee for reviewing over 300 abstracts.
1. J.B. Whiteside, UK: "A comparison of 0.5% ropivacaine (5% glucose) with 0.5 % bupivacaine (8% glucose) when used to provide spinal anaesthesia for elective surgery."
2. Dr. G. Jaenichen, Germany: "Haemodynamic parameters with a calculated low dose of bupivacaine 0.5% for spinal anaesthesia".
3. Dr. P. Beccaria, Italy: "Reducing the ED50 of local anesthetic required to produce surgical nerve block by using the multiple injection technique".
1. J. Walldén, Sweden: "Postoperative gastric emptying in PCA with I.V. morphine versus continuous epidural analgesia with morphine/bupivacaine for pain relief after lower abdominal surgery".
2. L. Kirchmair, Austria: "Ultrasound (US) guided PSOAS
compartment block (PCB): anatomic fundamentals".
"Ultrasound (US) guided PSOAS compartment block
(PCB): verification of a new technique with CT".
3. E. Zohar, Israel: "The analgesic efficacy of patient-controlled
bupivacaine instillation following major abdominal surgery".
"The analgesic efficacy of patient-controlled
ropivacaine instillation following caesarean section".
"The analgesic efficacy of patient-controlled
bupivacaine instillation following total abdominal hysterectomy".
Narinder Rawal, the incoming Secretary-General, thanked all the speakers for their contributions, the participants for coming to Rome, Francesco Nicosia (local organizing committee) for his cooperation, the sponsors for their support, and the congress organizers Options Eurocongress, particularly Dionne Bosma for an excellent job. He also thanked his scientific committee members for an outstanding program.
Narinder Rawal also honored both Athina Vadalouca, the outgoing President of ESRA, and André van Zundert, the past Secretary-General ESRA and incoming ESRA President, by awarding them the ESRA 2000 Distinguished Service Award.
Rome also provided a very stimulating setting for the social program of the congress. Rich in history and culture, it is a wonderful city to visit. It offers piazzas and palazzos, numerous museums and countless churches, tiny streets leading to lovely baroque fontanas, and _ of course _ many ristorantes serving delicious Italian cuisine. What better way to start the social program than with a Welcome Ceremony including a Pizza & Pasta Party combined with a selection of Italian wines and traditional music! For the congress dinner the Palazzo Lancellotti opened its doors especially for the ESRA delegates, offering a refined renaissance setting for the event within a stone's throw from one of Rome's most popular baroque squares, the Piazza Navona.
I am sure that both the scientific and the social program of the XIX Annual Congress will be remembered as exceptional. We hope to see you at our forthcoming annual meetings.
Please mark your calendar forthe next ESRA-EuroPain-ESOA meeting in Warsaw, Poland, September 19-22 2001. The opening ceremony will be in the Warsaw Opera House with renowned Polish opera singer, Wieslaw Ochman, and the congress dinner in the 17th Century Lazienski Palace. Please also mark your calendar for the first World Congress of Regional Anaesthesia (WCRA) in Barcelona, Spain, May 29-June 1 2002. As usual the ESRA congresses will offer numerous opportunities to meet experts from around the world and combine high quality science with European history and culture.
Narinder Rawal, MD, PhD
ESRA Secretary-General
André van Zundert, MD, PhD
ESRA President
