AB199. SOH22ABS091. Awake tracheal Intubation among anaesthesiology trainees—a survey
Anaesthesia Posters

AB199. SOH22ABS091. Awake tracheal Intubation among anaesthesiology trainees—a survey

Cathal Mac Donncha1, Padraig Calpin1, Paul Stewart2, David Roche2, Margaret Coleman2, Kevin Doody3

1Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Galway University Hospital, Galway, Ireland; 2Specialist Anaesthesia Trainee, College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland; 3Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Background: The Difficult Airway Society have published guidelines for the performance of awake tracheal intubation (ATI). This is a core competency among anaesthesiologists. We have surveyed Irish anaesthesiologists regarding their personal experience of performing ATI, including number of ATI done, confidence in the skill and experience of training of the skill.

Methods: We surveyed Irish anaesthesiology trainees in 4 Irish training site hospitals via an electronic survey. The survey consisted of ten questions, to determine the experience, expectation and confidence of Irish anaesthesiologist trainees in the performance of ATI. Ethical approval was received from Limerick Research Ethics Committee. Data was collected, stored and analysed using propriety third party paid service. Responses were completely anonymised. A response rate of 54.5% (N=78/143) was achieved. Subgroup analyses included the grade of doctor responding, their exposure to subspecialty airway practice, and what exposure trainees had to ATI in clinical practice.

Results: Total of 28% of respondents had never performed an ATI. Approximately 40% of respondents had performed less than 5. Less than 10% of respondents had performed more than 20 ATI thus far in their training. Ninety-two percent had observed ATI in clinical practice, and 50% had received simulation training on a manikin or computer simulator for ATI. Only 30% of respondents described themselves as confident in performing an ATI out of hours/on call.

Conclusions: Ireland ATI among Irish anaesthesiologists should be a core skill, with 58.9% of respondents thinking all registrar and above grade doctors should be expert in the performance of ATI. However we know that ATI is quite rare, with data from UK suggesting it occurs in just 0.7–1.2% of all tracheal intubations. Training opportunities for this advanced airway skill in clinical practice are available, with the majority of respondents (93%) observing this skill in clinical practice, however our data suggests there is a significant gap between trainees exposure, beyond observation, to the performance of this core skill.

Keywords: Awake tracheal intubation (ATI); awake fibre-optic intubation; airway training; education; simulation

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-22-ab199
Cite this abstract as: Mac Donncha C, Calpin P, Stewart P, Roche D, Coleman M, Doody K. AB199. SOH22ABS091. Awake tracheal Intubation among anaesthesiology trainees—a survey. Mesentery Peritoneum 2022;6:AB199.

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