News from the European Pain Federation EFIC Chapters

For the first time after the COVID pandemic period, Croatian Pain Society – Croatian Medical Association (the Croatian chapter of EFIC® and IASP®) has organized a face-to-face meeting. It was held in Split, Croatia on 11 and 12 June 2021, respecting the valid epidemiological recommendations of the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia. This has been the first opportunity for many participants to meet up with other colleagues that share a common interest in pain medicine after the COVID pandemic year. A total of 50 M.D. from Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the audience have the opportunity to listen to 21 invited speakers who work as pain physicians, clinical pharmacologists, or researchers in the laboratories. Leaders of this course wanted to shed light on the molecular level of pain, which is unusually important in understanding the pathophysiology of pain, the diagnosis of pain, and of course in the treatment of pain.

Lectures topics were:

• Epidemiology and pathophysiology of pain; Current animal tests and pain models;
• Pharmacogenetics of pain inhibition; Placebo and nocebo in analgesia;
• Pharmacological characteristics of special groups as Obese patients, Newborns, Elderly patients, Pregnant women, and Palliative patients;
• Pharmacology of acetaminophen and NSAIDs; Opioids;
• The most common adjuvant analgesics;
• The role of different system and molecules in the pain pharmacology – the Cannabinoid system;
• Glutamate and GABA receptors; Dopaminergic pathways and receptors;
• Adrenergic and cholinergic system; Cytokines, Chemokines; Neurotrophic factors, Neuropeptides;
• Nitric oxide; Adenosine triphosphate, Adenosine receptors; Sodium channels;
• Potassium and calcium channels.

At the end of the course, the participants gave it an excellent grade. This tells us about the need and quality of the course.

Croatian Pain Society as a partner of the Croatian Ministry of Health is working on launching a subspecialization program in the treatment of pain. We hope for further progress of the process and completion as soon as possible.

The Croatian Pain Society also started with the preparations for the 4th Croatian Congress on Pain Therapy, which will be held in Osijek in spring 2022. Pain Department of Osijek University Hospital Centre is the Reference Center of the Croatian Ministry of Health for neuromodulation in the treatment of pain. In addition to the two clinics where anesthesiologists work every day, the treatment of patients with pain is assisted by a psychologist, an occupational therapist, and educated nurses. A special feature of Pain Department is the program for multidisciplinary treatment through a day hospital, which has been implemented since 2014. Twenty types of minimally invasive pain treatments are performed here on a daily basis. The crown procedure is the installation and programming of spinal cord stimulators, which started in 2017.

Best wishes to all European Pain Societies, from your Croatian colleagues

Prof. Ivan Rados, M.D.
President of the Croatian Pain Society – Croatian Medical Association

Ivan Omrcen, M.D
Secretary of the Croatian Pain Society – Croatian Medical Association

This year was very significantly influenced by Covid – 19 problem as far as in the whole Europe. Our activities were prominently done with online system. In this modus was organised the congress: The pain days in Northern Bohemia.

The main organiser was Jan Procházka, MD, Ph.D., the Head of Department of anesthesiology and resuscitation in the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of J. E. Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem. During the program there were presented 16 lectures with discussion. There were be more, than 200 participants, mainly algesiologists, anesthesiologists, and other medical disciplines.

With on-line method were organised also several local seminars and discussions. The main activity of the board of Czech Pain Society was the preparation of Czech-Slovak Dialogs on Pain, the international congress, which is held in Hradec Králové, 20.-22. October 2021. We suppose to attract 250-300 participants. The main theme will be: The Prevention of chronic pain.

The contemporary Board of Czech Pain Society is composed of:

ass. prof. Jiří Kozák, MD, PhD, president

Marek Hakl, MD, PhD, vicepresident

Jan Leičko, MD, vicepresident

prof. Richard Rokyta, MD, Ph.D., DSc, FCMA international and scientific secretary, councilor of EFIC

Ivan Vrba MD, Ph.D., treasurer

Dana Vondráčková, MD, responsible for the education and pain attestation

Members:

Petr Cvrček, MD, PhD,

ass.prof. Jitka Fricová, MD, PhD,

ass.prof. Tomáš Gabrhelík, MD, PhD,

Jana Hrubešová, MD,

Radovan Hřib, MD,

prof. Jaroslav Opavský, MD, PhD,

Nataša Poperová, MD,

prof. Pavel Ševčík, MD, PhD,

Audit commitee

Jan Procházka, MD, PhD, – chairman

Radovan Šumlivski, MD, PhD,

ass.prof. Jiří Málek, MD, PhD,

On the occasion of the world day against pain (Monday, October 18th) the French Pain Society (SFETD) is holding a round table at the Ministry of Health, under the title: “Improving pain management in France: the key areas for 2022”. After an introduction by M Olivier Véran, Ministry of Health and Solidarities, the main items to be discussed will be:

• Pain-related to post-Covid syndrome
• Recommendations to improve the care pathway of chronic pain patients: Optimising the collaboration between city and hospital medicine
• Priorities for training and research in pain medicine
• Improvements to be made in the management of vulnerable persons in France

During Summer 2021 the SFETD launched a demographic survey sent to all French Pain Centres, in order to obtain a demographic map of the supply of care in chronic pain structures, and establish its density region by region so as to achieve a balanced territorial network adapted to the population. The results of the survey will be available during October 2021.

The next SFETD Congress will be held in Montpellier on 17-19 November 2021. It will hopefully be fully onsite, but with the possibility of simultaneous video connection. The opening lecture will be by Pr Luana Colloca (Baltimore). The vast majority of the presentations will of course be in French, so all francophone colleagues in Europe are cordially invited to participate!

Best wishes to all European Pain Societies, from your French colleagues
The SFETD Board

8th Symposium “Progress in pain treatment” on Internet organized by the Polish Association for the Study of Pain

The lectures will be held on:

18-21-25-28 October 2021
2-4-8-11-15-18-22-25 November 2021

Find out more here.

Oct 29, 2021 – National Annual conference Dutch chapter PA!N: PA!N Congres 2021 | PA!N – Pijn Alliantie in Nederland