Australian training for contemporary airway management of obstructive sleep apnoea in ENT surgery: current status and...

The identification and treatment of adult obstructive sleep apnoea and other sleep-related breathing issues demands nuanced clinical judgement to determine if surgery is appropriate and which surgery should be performed. No study to date has evaluated the sleep medicine curriculum from the perspective of the Australian ENT surgical trainee, or addressed potential strategies for improving levels of surgical skill and knowledge in this field.

A cross-sectional survey was used to assess knowledge of sleep surgery in trainees enlisted with the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. After a cadaver dissection workshop on the latest reconstructive surgical techniques in adult OSA, a second survey was used to assess changes in the likelihood of applying techniques.

Overall, trainee confidence, knowledge and exposure to sleep-disordered breathing cases averaged below 50 per cent. The cadaver dissection workshop achieved consistent improvements in all areas assessed.

Low confidence and lack of exposure to sleep surgery cases for ENT trainees supports a broadening of the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery curriculum. This paper outlines possible ways to improve this situation.