The EAN Specialist Panel “Neurocritical Care” held its annual meeting on the 25th June 2017 during the EAN Congress in Amsterdam. Chair: Maxwell Damian. Management Group members present: Erich Schmutzhard and Raimund Helbok.
The Chair welcomed the attendees and introduced Dafin Muresanu (Romania, EAN Scientific Committee) as the new Liaison Officer between the EAN Scientific Committee and the Spcientific Panel. Prof. Marinescu will facilitate closer liaison and communication between the Scientific Panel and the EAN Scientific Committee.
The agenda covered in the meeting included the following discussion points:
Initiative for broader representation in the SP: In line with EAN policy the SP seek nomination of patient group and trainee neurologist representatives. First nominated representatives are Mr. Paul Versnel (UK) as patient representative and Dr. Edward Needham (UK) as trainee representative. 2 further patient representatives and further trainee representatives will be nominated during the course of 2017. Dr. Needham has kindly offered to function as Secretary of the SP.
The SP Management group’s tasks were reviewed and representatives for the tasks identified: Guideline production (Damian), Scientific updates (Schmutzhard, Helbok, Schwab), Congress preparation (Schmutzhard, Helbok, Schwab), Annual report (Damian, Schwab) Rare diseases Taskforce (Damian, Kondziella), Transition of care (Damian), Educational activities (Schmutzhard, Helbok, Schwab), European issues (Schwab, Damian, Schmutzhard), Cooperation with patient’s organisation (Schwab, Schmutzhard, Versnel)
The importance of SP presentation through webpage in the EAN site was emphasised; it is is currently under review and suggestions are being curated by Gustavo Santo, Portugal.
Scientific updates and publications via EAN webpages were emphasised. The process and publication format was discussed (3-5 key-points of main take-home messages; a comment of 150-250 words; references). Scientific Panel reports to increase the SP profile were requested. Serefnur Ozturk will curate the EAN pages contributions from the SP planning 3-monthly updates and the Secretary will make reminder calls 3-monthly for updates.
Guideline production was identified as a major focus of the SP in concordance with the priority of the Scientific Committee, preferably including joint projects with other SPs. The EAN offer of methodological and statistical support, and in some cases material support was welcomed and the GRADE Course 2018 is recommended. The new guideline “Early Neurological prognostication in Coma following Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Targeted Temperature Management” is nearing completion. Other guideline proposals are welcome.
Educational activities are a priority for the SP and the group have made numerous session contribution to the 3rd EAN Congress Amsterdam 2017 related to Critical Care were reviewed (Damian (FW Sat 8.30): Management of rare genetic neurological diseases in the ICU; Helbok (HoC Sat 8.30): Monitoring and multimodal neuromonitoring; Schwab/Damian (OS Sat 14.45) Critical Care; Schmutzhard (in TC 12 Mon 15.00 Current treatments in neurology) Acute bacterial meningitis; Schmutzhard (TC15 Tue 13.00) Neurological infections in travellers and immigrants; Damian (CbW 7 Tue 8.30) How far should we push interventions in neurocritical care. A number of session proposals for 4th EAN Lisbon 2018 have been accepted (Alvarez/Steiner (Controversy session): Steroids in neuroinfections; Damian/De Visser (TC): Acute emergencies in neuromuscular disease; Schwab (TC): New concepts in the critical care of stroke; Harms (FW): Autoimmune encephalitis in the ICU). The SP members were congratulated for their excellent proposals. Proposals for the 5th EAN in Oslo 2019 will be collated once the overarching theme of that meeting is formulated.
A questionnaire on “Provision of Neurointensive Care in Europe” has been initiated to map the distribution of services EAN member countries and better tailor potential preferences for future guidelines and identify issues around implementation.
The Rare Neurological Diseases Taskforce is represented by Daniel Kondziella, Maxwell Damian, Serefnur Ozturk and Lutz Harms. A registry on Rare Metabolic and Neuromuscular Disorders in the ICU was discussed, to be initiated together with the Metabolic Disorders Network. The SP noted that updates on rare diseases can be published via OrphaNews have been requested by the EAN board.
The members of the SP were thanked for their active participation in this meeting. A quarterly phone conference will take place November 2017 as well as a Management Group phone conference. Maxwell Damian, and the Management Group of the SP
By Maxwell Damian1 and Stefan Schwab2, SP Co-Chairs
1Department of Neurology, Cambridge University Hospitals, UK; 2Department of Neurology, Universitaet Erlangen, Germany
