What about all your damned books? If they don’t tell you that, what the hell do they tell you? Alexis Zorbas

This year, a respectable Swiss delegation made it’s way to Birmingham to participate in the “British ophthalmic anesthesia society’s” annual congress. Three anesthesiologists from Berne and one from Lausanne took part in what is an intellectual feast for everybody concerned with anesthetizing patients in ophthalmic surgery. We received a very warm welcome from our British collegues and were given the possibility to present two clinical cases and our ROAH-homepage. Discussions and presentations were utterly stimulating and we take home a lot of inspiration to include in our daily clinical practice. Looking forward to next years BOAS congress, most likely to be held in London. Hopefully then with an even bigger Swiss delegation! Ah yes, and what do we make of the Kazantzakis-caption? Well, we related a difficult case where “those damn books” were not much help (see movie). In effect every now and then the written life has to be overruled by Zorbas’s maxime ” To be alive is to tighten the belt and look for trouble”! The anesthesiologist in me should only enjoin the following addendum”… and to keep trouble away from your patient…” I can positively feel how this blog is turning into a powerhouse of quintessential truths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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