ROYAL-COLLEGE-OF-SURGEONS COMPARATIVE ENT AUDIT 1990

The Royal College of Surgeons Comparative Audit Service was set up in 1990 so that surgeons could pool their audit data, to provide 'standar ds' with which to compare their own figures. A total of 405 consultant otolaryngologists were circularized in December 1991 inviting them to return data about their resources, workload, case-mix and complicatio ns, and about two specific audit topics - Myringoplasty and Carcinoma of the Larynx - for the calendar year 1990. A total of 65 consultants returned proformas with data on 52 208 admissions and 31 240 surgical procedures. The 'average' respondent admitted 829 patients in the year (19% of these day cases and 14% emergencies) and performed 744 surgic al procedures with a mean complication rate of 1.39% using three theat re sessions per week. Cancelled theatre sessions per annum per consult ant ranged from 0 to 71. The mean known success rate after myringoplas ty was 65%, with hearing improvement in 53%. The 'average' ENT surgeon saw 3.5 new cases of invasive carcinoma of the larynx and treated 69% of these with radiotherapy alone, compared with 14% surgery alone. As well as allowing a profile to be drawn up of the 'average' respondent , this audit allowed individual consultants returning data to compare their own figures in detail with the pooled data, which were presented graphically at a meeting in April 1992.