• Welcome to Bapa

History of BAPA

It all started in the 1980’s when Mario Govaerts organized the « Rencontres d’Anesthésie Pédiatrique » at the Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola (HUDERF) in Brussels. They were the first time post-graduate meetings dedicated to paediatric anaesthesia organized in Belgium. Each evening-conference was an excellent opportunity to meet colleagues, to exchange experiences and, last but not least, to attend lectures of international experts such as Claude Saint-Maurice, Rob Eyres, Olli Meretoja, David Hatch or Nick Goudsouzian, to name only a few of them.

A group of friends decided to create the Club belge d’Anesthésie pédiatrique in 1988: they were Mario Govaerts, Eugeen Vandermeersch, Ann Vandevelde, Charles Piette, … and Francis Veyckemans. Soon after, contacts were established with the Belgian Society for Anesthesia and Reanimation, to transform this Club in the Paediatric Section of the Society. The Belgian Association for Paediatric Anaesthesiology (BAPA) was finally born in 1989.  The name was carefully chosen in order to make it clear that it was not meant to be a small club of sub- or super-specialists, but a scientific group dedicated to improving the quality and safety of anaesthesia for paediatric patients in Belgium and that it was open to anyone interested in paediatric anaesthesia. The first President was Mario Govaerts and the Treasurer was Francis Veyckemans.

The following years were a succession of ups and downs: small meetings were organized but the BAPA slowly lost its visibility and behave like a sleeping beauty until 2006 when Johan Berghmans and his colleagues in Antwerpen proposed to organize a meeting in Antwerpen with the help and support of D Impe. The meeting, entitled “Anaesthesia and the child – Anno 2007” (guest lecturer: Adrian Bosenberg), was held on December 8th in Antwerpen and was an incredible success.

A second meeting, “Anaesthesia and the child’s brain” (guest lecturer: Bruno Bissonnette), was organized in Antwerpen at the end of October 2009.

A Joint meeting with the Sectie KinderAnesthesiologie of the Dutch Society for Anesthesiology, entitled “Update in Pediatric Anaesthesia” (guest lecturer: Walid Habre) was organized in Eindhoven on October 30th 2010.

The team that organized these meetings then decided to adapt the bylaws of BAPA and to organize every year, one Refresher Course on Paediatric Anaesthesia and one Annual Meeting of the BAPA. The first Refresher Course was organized at the UCL in January 2012 and the first Annual meeting was held in Brugge on April 21th 2012.

Finally, the BAPA was able to publish Belgian recommendations on perioperative maintenance fluid management in the surgical pediatric populationActa Anaesthesiol Belg 2012; 63: 101-9 under the direction of Nadia Najafi.
The website of the BAPA was officially opened during the 2nd  Annual meeting in Brussels, on April 20th 2013.

Aims of the Belgian Association for Paediatric Anaesthesiology

The Association is open to any consultant anaesthesiologist or anaesthesiologist in training who is interested in paediatric anaesthesia. He/she has to submit this/her nomination the chairman of the board of directors. The board of directors will decide on the acceptance of the nominee as member during the next assembly.

The BAPA aims to be active in the field of Belgian paediatric anaesthesiology and strives for a positive image, improved quality, development and publication of competence and expertise in the field of paediatric anaesthesiology. The BAPA focuses its policy on the execution of the following aspects:

  • organisation of scientific gatherings: refresher courses, annual meeting, common meetings with other organizations;
  • compilation and publication of essential (inter)national scientific data through its website;
  • stimulation and coordination of scientific research in its fields of interest;
  • participation in in-service training and refresher courses;
  • evaluation of new medical technology and medicine in its fields of interest;
  • representation, assistance and protection of the interests of the BAPA members:
  • representation of the BAPA and the BSAR in the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology.