Difficult airway management and training: simulation, communication, and feedback

Successful and sustainable training and learning of the management of difficult and normal airway is essential for all clinically active anesthesiologists. We emphasize the importance of a continuously updated learning and training environment based on actual knowledge, best available equipment, standardized procedures, and educational theory.

In the past, most of the training were based on 'learning by doing' under the supervision of superiors or experienced colleagues. This has been recognized as insufficient and training has evolved to its recent level by structuring it into technical, methodological, and behavioral components. Additionally, a large part of it has been shifted away from learning on patients to simulated scenarios in designated environments. The contents, structure, components, and succession of components have been refined according to the steadily evolving and available instruments. Increasingly, team interaction and behavioral aspects gained more attention and became part of standardized education units that are tailored to the learners' clinical role and level of experience.

We present the details of the Zurich Airway Training and Simulation program, which has been constantly updated to the actual state of knowledge and available equipment.