• M T Popat, M Srivastava, and R Russell.
• Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
• Int J Obstet Anesth. 2000 Apr 1;9(2):78-82.

AbstractA survey of anaesthetists in the Oxford region was conducted to determine their skills and practice in performing awake fibreoptic intubation. Forty-two consultant obstetric anaesthetists (group O), 21 consultant anaesthetists with an interest in difficult airway management (group D) and 20 anaesthetic specialist registrars in their final training year (group S) were sent a questionnaire on management of a patient with a known difficult airway for elective caesarean section. All but one responded. If regional anaesthesia was unsuccessful or contraindicated, 75/82 respondents (91.5%) would choose to secure the airway by awake intubation. Of the remaining seven, six would use general anaesthesia and spontaneous respiration, five (6.1%) with the laryngeal mask airway and one (1.2%) with mask and airway and one (1.2%) local infiltration by the surgeon. Although awake fibreoptic intubation was the technique chosen by 98.7%, only six (8.1%) had experience of its performance in an obstetric patient. Of the 68 anaesthetists without such experience, only 12/31 (38.7%) group O compared to 13/18 (72.2%) group D and 12/19 (63.2%) group S would be confident to perform awake fibreoptic intubation in an obstetric patient. Only one anaesthetist in the survey practised awake fibreoptic intubation in non-obstetric patients regularly (>3/month). However, 69/82 respondents replied that all consultant obstetric anaesthetists should be experienced in performing awake fibreoptic intubation. We conclude that despite the value of awake fibreoptic intubation, consultant obstetric anaesthetists are less confident in performing it than those with an interest in difficult airway management and final year specialist registrars.

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