About ISPAR

We are a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and academics working in the field of perioperative allergy. The founder members are 26 colleagues who originally came together to develop some international consensus guidelines and reviews for a Special Issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia which was published in July 2019. We named our group the “International Suspected Perioperative Allergy (ISPAR) Group”.

During the course of this academic collaboration we agreed that, because of the rarity of events and the different ways services are set up (or are absent) in different countries, the field needs to be tackled on a global scale. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary nature of the field means that we need a cross-disciplinary international forum that can work with national and international allergy and anaesthesia societies.

Over the past 3 years, the ISPAR Group has held 2 Annual Meetings and its membership has grown to include more than 270 colleagues from 46 countries.

We now invite further colleagues from allergy, anaesthesiology and immunology with an interest in perioperative hypersensitivity to join us.

Some of the founding members of the ISPAR Group


ISPAR Constitution

The ISPAR Group vision

Scope

The prevention, clinical recognition, clinical management and diagnostic investigation of suspected perioperative allergic reactions.

Aims

  • Improve treatment of perioperative allergy
  • Improve investigation of perioperative allergy
  • Generate evidence
  • Better serve the patients who experience perioperative allergy
  • Reduce the incidence of perioperative allergy

Objectives

  • Share best practice
  • Develop guidelines
  • Develop and publish patient information
  • Promote and undertake basic and clinical research in the area of perioperative allergy
  • Promote education and training of relevant physicians and other healthcare professionals
  • Promote interdisciplinary collaboration

Vehicles

  • Formation of a formal international cross-disciplinary group as an umbrella for groups that already exist such as ANZAAG and similar national and regional networks
  • A regular international meeting on perioperative allergy
  • Website

Join ISPAR to be part of this vision


Join ISPAR

The ISPAR Group Management Board

Lene Heise Garvey

Denmark
Chair of the ISPAR Group

Lene is a specialist in Anaesthesiology and Allergology based in Copenhagen. She is co-founder and Head of the Danish Anaesthesia Allergy Centre, established in 1999. She is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen and a consultant in the Perioperative & General Allergy Clinics at Gentofte Hospital. She is secretary of the EAACI Drug Allergy Interest Group and a member of the WAO drug hypersensitivity committee. Research interests include all aspects of perioperative allergy and drug allergy, and mechanisms and treatment of anaphylaxis.

Sarah Green

australia
Vice-Chair of the ispar group

Sarah is a clinician anaesthesiologist based in Sydney, Australia. She has been involved with clinical, educational, research, and governance responsibilities of the Perioperative Allergy Service at Royal North Shore Hospital Sydney since 2011. This service was founded in the 1980s and has evolved to become a cohesive cross-disciplinary unit. Anaesthetists, immunologists, nursing, laboratory, and health administrator staff have conjoint responsibilities to care for more than 300 patients annually, spanning their acute phase treatment, diagnostic evaluation and follow-up of perioperative allergy problems. Sarah is a member of the Australian New Zealand Anaesthetic Allergy Group and is interested in the global reduction of iatrogenic harm in anaesthetic practice. 

Phil Hopkins

UK

Phil is an anaesthesiologist based in Leeds. His interest in perioperative allergy arose from a broader interest in adverse drug reactions during anaesthesia, notably malignant hyperthermia. In 2005, he jointly set up a multidisciplinary clinic for the investigation of suspected anaesthetic allergic reactions serving a population of > 2 million. Phil was instrumental in proposing & delivering the BJA Special Issue on perioperative allergic reactions which led to the formation of the ISPAR Group.

Peter Cooke

New Zealand

Peter is an anaesthesiologist in Auckland, New Zealand. He has joint responsibility for the Auckland Anaesthetic Allergy Clinic in conjunction with the Department of Immunology. The clinic investigates suspected perioperative reactions and receives 100 referrals per year. Peter was one of the founding members of the Australian and New Zealand Anaesthetic Allergy Group and he is convinced that the development of an international network will assist scientific progress in this subject area.

Didier Ebo

Belgium

Didier is an immunologist/allergist based in Antwerp & Ghent. His main interest is the molecular mechanisms of basophil & mast cell degranulation during immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions. In 2000 he set up a reference centre for the investigation of suspected anaesthetic allergic reactions in Flanders with > 800 patients seen to date. Didier’s research interests include in vitro diagnosis of suspected perioperative allergic reactions, validation of IgE assays & basophil activation tests.

Jerry Volcheck

USA

Jerry is an allergist/immunologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota: he is chairman of the Division of Allergic Diseases and Associate Professor. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. His interest in perioperative allergy began during his Allergy & Immunology fellowship: his group’s paper detailing perioperative allergy at Mayo Clinic was the first in the USA from a large medical center in 20 years.

Paul Michel Mertes

France

Michel is Professor of Anesthesia & Intensive Care in Strasbourg. He runs the GERAP network of ~40 allergo-anesthesia centres across France. This collaboration between allergists, anaesthetists & biologists produces epidemiological data, evaluates diagnostic strategies & provides clinical recommendations. Michel has studied anaesthetic immediate hypersensitivity reactions for 30 years: his research group investigates the pathophysiology of anaphylaxis & potential novel therapeutic pathways.

Anita Spindola

Brazil

Anita is an anesthesiologist with an interest in adverse drug reactions, especially malignant hyperthermia and perioperative anaphylaxis. She is the co-founder and has joint responsibility for the multidisciplinary evaluation core for allergic-type reactions to drugs (NARTAD) at University Hospital of Santa Catarina Federal University, Florianopolis SC Brazil. Since 2021 on behalf of the Brazilian Society of Anesthesiology (SBA), Anita has conducted the Anaphylaxis Project, connecting allergists and and anesthesiologists interested in Perioperative Anaphylaxis in each state of the country. The Project has the aim of stimulating the study of perioperative anaphylactic reactions and raising awareness of post crisis assessment need.

Tomonori Takazawa

JAPAN

Tomonori is an anesthesiologist in Toyama, Japan. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama. He has been working on identifying the cause of perioperative anaphylaxis over the past ten years. In particular, he is focusing on the molecular basis of anaphylaxis caused by sugammadex. He is the principal investigator of a multicenter study of perioperative anaphylaxis, the Japanese Epidemiologic Study for Perioperative Anaphylaxis (JESPA).

Thanachit Krikeerati

Thailand
Junior Member

Thanachit is an allergist in Bangkok, Thailand and has a broad interest in allergology, focusing on drug and perioperative allergies. His interest extends to molecular allergology, food allergy, and allergen immunotherapy. He’s also interested in systematic reviews, clinical epidemiology, and predictive models.He’s also active junior member of AAIAT, APAAACI, and EAACI.

Anna
Littlejohns

UK
Junior member

Anna is an academic clinical fellow in anaesthetics in the UK. She is part of the Leeds Perioperative Allergy Service and is a currently developing a structured approach to defining diagnostic certainty in patients with suspected perioperative allergy.

Partner organisations

  • Australian and New Zealand Anaesthetic Allergy Group
  • British Journal of Anaesthesia
  • European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
  • European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ISPAR is an affiliated Specialist Society of ESAIC)

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