Learning fibreoptic skills in ear, nose and throat clinics

We have compared the progress of anaesthetists taught fibreoptic techniques on awake patients in ear, nose and throat clinics with that of anaesthetists taught by traditional methods. Twelve anaesthetists participated in the study and were randomly allocated to the ear, nose and throat group or to the traditional training group. Each individual in the ear, nose and throat group attended the outpatient clinic and performed ten nasendoscopies on awake patients, whose upper airway had been anaesthetised with cocaine, under the supervision of an ear, nose and throat surgeon. Each individual in the traditional group performed ten nasendoscopies on anaesthetised oral surgery inpatients under the supervision of an anaesthetist. To assess the effectiveness of the two training methods, each anaesthetist in each group then attempted ten fibreoptic nasotracheal intubations on anaesthetised oral surgery patients. There was no significant difference between either the success rates or mean successful tracheoscopy times between the two groups. Nasendoscopy training in the ear, nose and throat clinic appears to be a good way of learning fibreoptic skills, which can then be readily applied to fibreoptic tracheal intubation in anaesthetic practice.