[New perspectives for simulator-based training in paediatric anaesthesia and emergency medicine]

Anaesthesia and emergency medical care for infants and toddlers is often associated with high clinical demands and specific challenges. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of interventions is performed by anaesthetists and emergency physicians with no specialised paediatric training and little experience in the management of anaesthetic incidents and emergencies specific to these age groups. Extensive studies have demonstrated a close inverse correlation between the level of specialisation and perioperative morbidity and mortality. However, clinical circumstances and the relatively small number of paediatric cases at many institutions often hinder the establishment of improved training concepts. Recently, high-fidelity infant simulators have become available, which permit authentic exposure to a large spectrum of scenarios in paediatric anaesthesia and emergency medicine. A multimodular concept of training, including such simulator-based techniques, may relieve the widespread shortage in clinical experience, and hence greatly facilitate improvement of quality of care and patient safety.