The growing impact of Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica

Gastro-Enterologica Belgica is a special occasion. Traditionally, all accepted abstracts of the Belgian Week of Gastroenterology are published in our journal and the printed edition is handed out to all the attendees of the meeting. Moreover, it is always a pleasure to meet and interact with our colleagues and readers during these exciting three days filled with the latest advances in clinical and scientific aspects of gastroenterology. However, after a successful edition of the conference just before the start of the lockdown in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, everything changed in the past year and will continue to be impacted at least during the first half of 2021 (1-3). Because of the containment measures, this year’s Belgian Week of Gastroenterology will be the first digital, online edition. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to see that many of you still submitted your finest scientific and clinical work in the form of an abstract, which again underlines the enthusiasm and quality of Belgian gastroenterology, including gastroenterologists, scientists, nursing staff and other paramedics. Even if we will not be able to meet you in person at the booth of our journal, we will stick to the yearly tradition of providing our journal with all the published abstracts to all of those who registered for the meeting and all the members of the SRBGE and VVGE.

Keywords: Belgian week of gastroenterology, Brohée prize, hemorrhoids, hepatopulmonary syndrome.