Airway experience of anaesthetic registrars

Education and expertise in airway skills are central components of anaesthesia training, yet there is no formal monitoring of the airway experience or level of competence that registrars actually obtain. An audit was performed in two phases to prospectively document the airway management experience of registrars in one teaching hospital department. Novices were studied for three months and subsequently, the whole registrar group for one month. Novice registrars performed a mean of two facemask anaesthetics, 19 laryngeal mask airways and 20 endotracheal intubations per month in their first three months of anaesthetic practice. The overall registrar group performed a mean of 18 laryngeal mask airways and 19 endotracheal intubations in the study month. Our findings indicate that the airway experience of anaesthesia trainees may be inadequate and therefore warrants further investigation.