Abstract

This year's AKUTNE.CZ Congress was endorsed by the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University (MU), the University Hospital Brno, the Czech Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (CSARIM), the Czech Society of Intensive Care Medicine (CSIM), the Czech and Slovak Forum for Sepsis (CSFS), the MEdical FAculties NETwork (MEFANET), and the Expert Group for Obstetric Anaesthesia and Analgesia at CSARIM.

The Congress was organized by the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Brno, the AKUTNE.CZ portal, the AKUTNE.CZ Foundation, the Czech Medical Chamber, and the Professional and Trade Union of Medical Workers of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia.

Keywords

AKUTNE.CZ, emergency medicine, intensive care, anaesthesiology

Introduction

Traditionally, the initial speech of the opening ceremony was given by Prof. Roman Gal, head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Brno and chair of the scientific committee of the congress, and by Petr Stourac, M.D., chair of the organizing committee. Prof. Gal also passed greetings from Prof. Jiri Mayer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at MU. Distinguished guests who accepted the invitation by the organizers spoke shortly afterwards. The audience could therefore listen to short speeches given by Prof. Karel Cvachovec (chairman of CSARIM), Roman Kraus, M.D. (director of the University Hospital Brno), Roman Kula, M.D. (chairman of the CSFS), Zdenek Mrozek, M.D. (vice president of the Czech Medical Chamber), and Jiri Mach, M.D. (chairman of the Czech Medical Chamber Brno).

Medical section

Experts in acute medicine gave lectures in the main medical section from the early morning hours. The very first lectures were a promising start of the entire programme; to mention just a few of them, Prof. Cvachovec addressed the controversial topic of colloids, Dr. Kula presented the thorny issue of temporary malnutrition of ICU patients, and Prof. Gal gave a detailed lecture about the possibilities of using therapeutic hypothermia in the intensive care.

Interesting lecture by Dr. Kubricht entitled "The third Fate – current genetics and acute pain" with an equally exciting content described the position of molecular biology and genetics in relation to pain research. Individual genetic differences could thus explain the failure of standard procedures in pain treatment. The audience paid full attention to the lecture focused on using ultrasound (USG) during cardiac arrest, which outlined the possibilities of USG use to determine the causes of cardiac arrest in the field, prognostic significance and use for research. In the opinion of Dr. Skulec, USG examination during resuscitation is essential; nevertheless, it is not listed as a necessity according to the European Resuscitation Council. Dr. Mixa excellently summarized the issue of paediatric anaesthesia. In fact, he answered virtually all basic and most frequently asked questions about pre-anaesthetic examination, pre-operative fasting, prevention of delirium or use of regional anaesthesia in paediatric patients. At the end of a busy day of lectures, there was an inspiring presentation of Prof. Sevcik, entitled "How anaesthesiologist comes to happiness or what decides about the satisfaction of anaesthesiologists".

Interesting anaesthesiology case reports in the delivery room

This section was endorsed by the ESPAA group. Listeners in a crowded auditorium attentively listened to case reports of a patient with secondary non-obstructive central sleep hypoventilation caused by eclampsia, a pregnant woman diagnosed with Myotonia Congenita Levior with neurological indication for Caesarean delivery, two pregnant women with a tumour of central nervous system diagnosed during pregnancy, or two women in the third trimester of pregnancy who suffered polytrauma in a car accident. At the end, five discussed cases from the experience of Dr. Blaha concluded the probably most unique section of the congress.

Electronic support of teaching in medical and health sciences

Another success of this year's congress was the implementation of a parallel e-learning section which was endorsed by the educational network MEFANET. The first lecture on the interactive, case-based teaching with a focus on the education of health professionals was given by Dr. Pokorna. She underlined the importance of maintaining the didactic process and scientific background of the case, as well as leaving space for discussion. The team of Prof. Mihal from Olomouc introduced the Virtual Paediatric Clinic. This project supports both the undergraduate and postgraduate training on case reports in paediatrics. The e-learning section was concluded by a lecture on the possibilities of using mathematical simulators of physiology, which was given by Assoc. Prof. Kofranek.

Difficult airway management

For the first time in a separate section of the AKUTNE.CZ congress, experts in airway management under the coordination of Dr. Otahal provided listeners with a detailed theoretical background on topics such as rapid sequence induction, fiberoptic intubation, scenario cannot ventilate / cannot intubate using the laryngeal mask, coniopunction/coniotomy and last but not least, percutaneous tracheostomy.

Hands-on workshops

In light of the fact that the congress is intentionally focused on young physicians and medical students of higher grades, there were hands-on workshops called “It's about time…”; a workshop oriented on the management of difficult airways, the Bronchoscopic workshop, medical students-oriented Advanced simulator for acute conditions – METI®, Imaginative techniques or innovation of this year Coagulopathies and ROTEM.

Certified course of ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia

For the second time, the AKUTNE.CZ Congress also included a certified course of ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia, led by experienced tutors such as Dr. Mach, Dr. Dolezal, Dr. Jelinek, and the course organizer alone, Dr. Krikava. Twelve course participants received a certificate of the CSARIM's Section of Regional Anaesthesia, which is part of the training programme for obtaining a certificate Ultrasound assistance in regional anaesthesia.

During the closing ceremony of the 5^th annual AKUTNE.CZ congress, Dr. Stourac expressed his thanks to speakers, chairmen of the sections, audience, and the entire organizing team which consisted mainly of physicians of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Brno and medical students of the MU's Faculty of Medicine.

And finally, we cordially invite you to the 6^th AKUTNE.CZ congress which will be held on 22 November 2014 in Brno.

...Let´s meet at AKUTNE.CZ...