LEARNING FIBEROPTIC SKILLS IN EAR, NOSE AND THROAT CLINICS

We have compared the progress of anaesthetists taught fibreoptic techn iques on awake patients in ear, nose and throat clinics with that of a naesthetists taught by traditional methods. Twelve anaesthetists parti cipated in the study and were randomly allocated to the ear, nose and throat group or to the traditional training group. Each individual in the ear, nose and throat group attended the outpatient clinic and perf ormed ten nasendoscopies on awake patients, whose upper airway had bee n anaesthetised with cocaine, under the supervision of an ear, nose an d throat surgeon. Each individual in the traditional group performed t en nasendoscopies on anaesthetised oral surgery inpatients under the s upervision of an anaesthetist. To assess the effectiveness of the two training methods, each anaesthetist in each group then attempted ten f ibreoptic nasotracheal intubations on anaesthetised oral surgery patie nts. There was no significant difference between either the success ra tes or mean successful tracheoscopy times between the two groups. Nase ndoscopy training in the ear, nose and throat clinic appears to be a g ood way of learning fibreoptic skills, which can then be readily appli ed to fibreoptic tracheal intubation in anaesthetic practice.