Materials and Methods

 

 

Legal and Ethical Considerations. The study was approved by the members and the advisory board of the Austrian Working Group for Airway Management (Vienna, Austria).

 

Mailing Procedure. In March 2005, comprehensive questionnaire forms were mailed to all clinical directors of the 124 anesthesia departments at public hospitals in Austria. Each form was coded with an unique identification number to allow a second mailing to nonresponders; the identity of responders remained confidential. In May 2005, a second questionnaire form was sent to nonresponders; the deadline for return was two months later. 

 

Design of the Survey Questionnaire. The questions asked referred to the year 2004 and included the following: provision of formulated departmental strategies for difficult airway (DA) management; preoperative airway evaluation; communication of the experienced DA; equipment availability for airway management (AM); and teaching and training of anesthesia residents in AM.

 

Statistics. Data were transferred to a data base (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, United States) and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

 

 

Results