HOME

Welcome to the BeSARPP Website.

From the early beginning of modern anesthesia in our country, the BeSARPP was at your side organizing scientific meetings, supporting the education of residents, promoting research, as well as editing the “Acta Anaesthesiologica Belgica”. These challenges and our contribution to important consensus meetings inspired us to achieve our goals in patient care, education and research.

Today, your Society intends to further support you in the practice of our medical specialty. We will continue to provide you with information and postgraduate leaning opportunities, but we intend to do so in a much more interactive way.

This site is yours: do not hesitate to submit opinions, comments and material of interest. As you know, anesthesia is broadening its scope to perioperative medicine. This may have an important impact on our daily practice. For this reason, during the months preceding our annual meeting, we will focus on the topic: what does perioperative medicine mean for a Belgian anesthesiologist today? At our annual meeting we will try to provide you with some answers to this question.

BeSARPP Graduation Day

Submission for the BeSARPP Graduation Day is open. Find all requirements, practical information and the links to the submission platforms here.

BeSARPP Annual Meeting & Graduation Day 2026

The Scientific Committee of our Annual Meeting are inviting you to next year’s Annual Meeting on 12-13 June 2026. Save the date!

Find more information here

Joint Communication from the American Society of Anesthesiologists 

Dear colleagues,

This is a Joint Communication from the American Society of Anesthesiologists  and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. It involves an Update regarding severe neurological complications and death after general anesthesia in adult and pediatric patients of Venezuelan ancestry.

The warning involves a Potential Anesthetic Risk in Patients with Maternal Venezuelan Ancestry

Recent reports from South American anesthesia societies, with additional cases identified in Europe and the U.S., describe unexpected catastrophic neurologic outcomes (including basal ganglia infarcts and death) in otherwise healthy adult and pediatric patients of Venezuelan ancestry after routine anesthesia.

Key points:

• Most affected patients were of Venezuelan maternal heritage.
• Many reportedly received sevoflurane; some received propofol (relative risk unknown).
• Genetic testing in some cases identified a mitochondrial ND4 mutation (mtND4 m.11232T>C) affecting Complex I of the electron transport chain.
• Volatile anesthetics and propofol are known to inhibit Complex I.
• There is no point-of-care screening test available.
• Negative family history does not exclude risk.
• All mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited; therefore, any patient with direct maternal Venezuelan lineage should be considered potentially at risk.

Recommendations:

Given the limited but concerning information, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) recommend:

• Consider asking about maternal Venezuelan ancestry during preoperative assessment.

• Approach these discussions with care and sensitivity.

• Use clinical judgment, as evidence remains incomplete and evolving.

Further updates will follow as more information becomes available.

kind regards,

BeSARPP board members

BeSARPP Statement

Click on the button below to read the Statement of the BeSARPP on the Medical Voices for Human Rights and The Right to Medical Care

Statement

Letter of Support for the WFSA Declaration on Patients’ Right to Essential Emergency and Critical Care

In providing this letter of support, the Belgian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management ( BeSARPP)

Recognizes that a lack of the provision of low-cost, feasible, essential emergency and critical care is a significant global health and human rights issue, contributing to preventable deaths worldwide.

For this reason, we support the principles outlined in the WFSA Declaration on Patients’ Right to Essential Emergency and Critical Care, and we:

Affirm that the provision of timely, lifesaving, feasible, foundational emergency and critical care is a fundamental component of quality healthcare and a basic human right;

Acknowledge the critical role that anaesthesiologists and other healthcare professionals play in ensuring that critically ill patients receive the essential care they need promptly and effectively, across all health facilities; and

Commit to promoting national and global efforts-including workforce strengthening, education, policy reform, and investment in essential drugs, equipment, and systems-to ensure provision of essential emergency and critical care worldwide.

We are committed to working in collaboration with national and international health authorities, professional societies, and civil society to ensure that every critically ill patient receives essential emergency and critical care, regardless of where they live or their economic circumstances.

Prof. Dr. Luc De Baerdemaeker

President of BeSARPP

15/04/2026

BeSARPP Research grant 2026

Each year, The Belgian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management supports research by BeSARPP research grants. Please find the 2026 submission rules here.

ACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA BELGICA – OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL

The AAB is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. Go to the AAB website