Introduction: The scope of regional anaesthesia has expanded significantly over the years, with innovative techniques and advancements in technology driving its widespread adoption across various medical specialties. ESRA, together with its Sister Societies AFSRA, ASRA Pain Medicine, AOSRA and LASRA, launched the 1st World Week of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, from Saturday 20th to Saturday 27th January 2024. Regional Anaesthesia (RA) and Chronic Pain physicians around the globe were connected together, highlighting the critical fields of RA and Pain Medicine, under the inspiring theme:
“Joining Hands for a Pain Free Future Worldwide”
Africa was inundated with the extraordinary embracing of the world day of regional anaesthesia , with extraordinary efforts done to make it successful, with more than 24 cities from all parts of Africa. Despite regional anaesthesia being underused in low-resource settings in Africa, there is a strong need to upgrade regional anaesthesia to the next level. Transformative impact of regional anaesthesia on patient care and outcomes is essential since its performance is safer than general anaesthesia and less resources as long as skills and experience are available. One notable example of the clinical impact of regional anaesthesia in Africa is its role in enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols. By incorporating regional anaesthesia techniques into multimodal analgesic regimens, ERAS programs have been shown to accelerate recovery, reduce complications, and improve patient satisfaction.
Barriers of regional anesthesia in Africa: Despite its many benefits, regional anaesthesia still faces challenges, including barriers to access, variations in training and expertise among healthcare providers, and misconceptions among patients and clinicians. Addressing these challenges will require concerted efforts to enhance education and training, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and raise awareness of the benefits of regional anaesthesia.
That’s why we always believe as AFSRA community that such engagement in these events reduces all these barriers and spreads the knowledge of regional anaesthesia.
Prior to the event: Linguistics, geography, resources variation between different centres were big challenges to invite all centres in Africa and to encourage them all to participate on a large scale. An excellent idea was to make the big centres in Africa connected to all neighbour centres with similar language and skills. Therefore, South Africa , Egypt and Morocco were the main hubs for transmitting their materials live to affiliated centres.
On the day: 20 different African countries took part with phenomenal engagement from all of them. Myself personally communicated with 28 local coordinators in different parts of Africa, with live telecommunication from different platforms, to ensure that everything is running as planned. All centres managed to complete the full programme sent by ESRA, including the theory and hands-on workshops.
Agreed modification of the programme was done to make it relevant for each centre.
Number of meetings done prior to the day between all coordinators and ESRA chair Dr Eleni Moka and organisers helped us to make the day running in a smooth way.
A list of the all coordinators: 🇪🇬 Cairo/Egypt: Dr Amany Ayad 🇲🇦 Casablanca/Morocco: Dr Afak Nsiri 🇿🇦 8 cities South Africa: Dr Francois Retief
🇩🇿 Algeria/Algeria: Dr Nor Eddine Bouarroudj 🇨🇮 Abidjan/Ivory Coast: Dr Kadidja Kone 🇨🇲 Yaounde/Cameroon: Dr Lionelle Tchokam 🇸🇳 Dakar/Senegal: Dr Mamadou Mour Traore 🇳🇦 Windhoek Namibia: Dr Kavezembua Kavari 🇿🇲 Lusaka /Zambia : Dr Arthur Polela 🇰🇪 Nairobi/Kenya: Dr Antony Kamau 🇧🇫 Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso: Dr Aida Zongo 🇨🇩 Bukavu/DRC: Dr William Baraka 🇸🇴 Mogadishu/Somalia: Dr Abdullahi Said Hashi 🇷🇼 Rwanda/Kigali: Dr Nyandwi Damscene 🇬🇭 Cape Coast/Ghana: Dr Ekor Oluwayemisi Hergissa/Somaliland: Dr Mubarak Mohamed 🇦🇴 Luanda/Angola: Dr Silvina Pereira 🇲🇿 Maputo/Mozambique: Dr Hamilton Arnaldo 🇱🇷 Monrovia/Liberia: Dr Suleiman Musa
Challenges and Future Directions: Looking to the future, ongoing research and innovation hold great promise for further advancing the field of regional anaesthesia. From the development of novel techniques in teaching and educating to the integration of more resources in regional anaesthesia for enhanced precision and safety, the future of regional anaesthesia is brighten Africa.
Repeating the world day of regional anaesthesia and similar events in line of collaboration with all different societies is a key in a fair global regional anaesthesia and we believe that it should be on a bigger sustainable scale.
Conclusion: World Day of Regional Anaesthesia serves as a reminder of the transformative power of regional anaesthesia in improving patient care and outcomes. By celebrating achievements, raising awareness, and fostering collaboration, this annual observance reaffirms the importance of regional anaesthesia in modern healthcare and inspires continued efforts to innovate and advance the field. Some not conclusive photos and highlights from different centres:
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