President's Message

Dear Visitor,

Welcome to the Society for Head and Neck Anesthesia (SHANA) Website! SHANA is an international society of physicians and other health care practitioners dedicated to improving the perioperative care of patients undergoing head and neck surgery. Since SHANA’s inception in 2011, it has grown to over 600 members worldwide, spanning across all the continents and over 30 countries.

With the advances in head and neck, as well as otolaryngologic surgeries, this field has grown to become a recognized Anesthesiology subspecialty. Importantly, this focus of interest and expertise allows collaboration between anesthesiologists and surgeons which is very essential for safe and effective patient care. To that end, a major part of our mission is to bring to you an online, state of the art education in Head and Neck anesthesia and related advanced airway management. We are grateful to our sponsors who have provided and continue to provide invaluable support for our educational mission.

Much has been done thus far due to the hard work of our founding and early members under the leadership of our inaugural SHANA President, Dr. David Healy, and his successor, Dr. Vladimir Nekhendzy and I am very excited to take on new challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Please enjoy browsing our award winning website and the SHANA Journal (a peer reviewed, quarterly publication). The Journal of Head and Neck Anesthesia (JoHNA) provides an outstanding opportunity for each SHANA member to submit and publish case reports, teaching videos, point of care tips, and original research. If you are not a SHANA member, we would love for you to join us and gain full access to the website’s rich content.

I am very privileged to carry our mission forward, working side by side with brilliant clinicians, scientists and educators who comprise SHANA’s Education, Scientific, Communications and Executive Boards. Moreover, I’m very keen on continuing to develop JoHNA and identify further opportunities for inter-professional collaboration and training. The contributions of our international members and their expertise make this society and its resources very unique and valuable.

Many opportunities exist for the SHANA membership to get involved in the Society and to share diverse and valuable clinical experience. Click on the Suggest and Submit button and share your education material. Please come back to the site often, and stay involved, for the benefit of our patients, our subspecialty, and our professional endeavors.

I look forward to seeing the SHANA membership engaged in more productive forum discussions. The selected discussions also will be published in the Journal. I also hope to be able to greet many of you at SHANA’s annual meetings coinciding with the upcoming American Society of Anesthesiologists' Annual Meetings

Thank you!

Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA
President, Society for Head and Neck Anesthesia