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Teaching airway management is dependent on the knowledge of the teachers
Author(s) -
Alfery D. D.,
Ezri T.,
Ghelber O.,
Szmuk P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.2006.01078.x
Subject(s) - citation , medicine , medical school , library science , center (category theory) , medical education , computer science , chemistry , crystallography
Sir, We read with concern the article by Kurola et al. (1) on the placement of three supraglottic devices by novice paramedical students. As the CobraPLA (COB) is a relatively new device, it is likely that the teacher’s experience with the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) far exceeded that with COB, and this discrepancy would be imparted to students in their very limited 15-min lecture and mannequin training. Thus, we believe that unintentional bias potentially played a significant role in the results. We believe that the critical study design error is in the selection of the appropriate size of COB to be used in each patient. Although Kurola et al. state that a size 4 COB ‘should be used’ for patients over 70 kg, an examination of the packaging for all product sizes shows that there are no upper weight limits for any given size of COB and that ‘Proper size CobraPLA is critical for effective insertion and function, smaller is usually better ’ (underlining present in product packaging, italics added). As the authors state, the anesthetists chose COBs that were often too large to fit in and function properly, thus negating the results of the study. Given that error, one must also question the quality of the insertion instruction that the students received.