This editorial introduces a collection of abstracts from the 2026 University of Latvia conference, highlighting ongoing research in perioperative and critical care medicine.
This special section of the journal presents the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care abstracts from the Conference.Together, they reflect the ongoing research in perioperative and critical care medicine in our region, spanning basic science, anaesthesiology, emergency medicine, intensive care, and pain management.For medical students and residents, this section offers a valuable opportunity to link core theoretical knowledge with real--world patient care, to discuss challenging cases and to consider future research directions.It helps us understand how physiology, pharmacology, technology, and teamwork converge at the bedside, and how evidence--based practice is translated into everyday clinical situations.The contributions address key domains of contemporary practice, including: the use of thermography to assess the success of regional anaesthesia blocks before orthopaedic surgery; differences in intensive care scores between acutely admitted and elective patients; exploration of student stress levels during low--and high--fidelity simulations; pharmacokinetics of antimicrobial medications during spine surgery; the impact of premedication and type of anaesthesia on patients' ability to recall information about analgesia and their involvement in analgesic care; pain and satisfaction after spine surgery and childbirth; preoperative anaemia in orthopaedic surgery; and the impact of middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity on delayed neurocognitive recovery.Of particular note is the strong representation of work led or co--authored by medical students and residents, underscoring the growing culture of inquiry and evidence--based thinking among early--career clinicians.While many of these projects are exploratory and single--centre, they generate valuable hypotheses, provide much--needed local data and highlight context--specific challenges in anaesthesiology and intensive care.We hope that this collection will stimulate further collaboration, encourage the refinement and expansion of ongoing studies and support the integration of research findings into everyday clinical practice.We thank all authors, supervisors and reviewers for their contributions, and we invite readers to engage critically with these abstracts, to build on their insights and to continue advancing safe, effective and patient--centred care in anaesthesiology, pain medicine, emergency medicine and intensive care.
Iveta Golubovska (Wed,) conducted a editorial in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care. This editorial introduces a collection of abstracts from the 2026 University of Latvia conference, highlighting ongoing research in perioperative and critical care medicine.