The Age Anaesthesia Society is the UK equivalent of SAGA.  AAA (www.aaa-online.org.uk) held its annual meeting in Manchester, England on May 10-11, 2007.  AAA graciously invited many SAGA members to speak at the meeting – and even picked up the tab for their attendance.  It was a fabulous meeting with great talks and a chance to meet our UK counterparts.  In fact, the AAA has been around for 20 years now and serves as a model on how to survive as a small society.  With 85 paying participants and corporate support, the meeting did not lose money.  The opportunity to network was invaluable, and members of AAA and SAGA are beginning to collaborate on what we hope will become the First World Congress on Geriatric Anesthesia.  There is no similar society elsewhere in the world (e.g. none in Europe) so one of the challenges will be to attract participants from all over the globe. 

      As mentioned, SAGA was well represented at the meeting.  Alec Rooke spoke on “What do we need to know about the elderly cardiovascular system?”, Bernadette Veering (Netherlands) spoke about “Regional anaesthesia in the geriatric population”, Deb Culley spoke in a panel on cognitive dysfunction and whether anesthetic agents contribute to the problem, Chris Jankowski spoke at the panel on the recognition and management of postoperative delirium, Fritz Sieber participated in the panel on education in geriatric anesthesia, and the final two talks were given by Terri Monk on “The Future of Day Case Anaesthesia in the Elderly” and Greg Crosby on “Neurotoxicity, Brain Failure and Dementia: cause for concern?”  Special thanks must be given to Andrew Severn from AAA for his time and effort organizing the meeting and for being such a wonderful host.  Everyone had a great time.

Age Anesthesia Association