The clinical effectiveness of simulation based airway management education using the Korean emergency airway registry

Introduction. Simulation training with an integrated simulator is appropriate for achieving educational goals in airway management. Thus, we designed this study to evaluate the effectiveness of a simulation based emergency airway management program (SBEAMP) in actual practice. Method. This is a retrospective sub-group analysis of the Korean Emergency Airway Management Registry from 2006 to 2010. We categorized all hospitals into two groups. Six hospitals that actively attended SBEAMP were defined as the 'participant group', and the others as the 'non-participant group'. The types of medicines administered, the use of pre-oxygenation, and the rate of first pass success were compared. Result. The ratio of patients with no medicine received during intubation showed a decrease in both groups but was more rapid in the participant group (p<0.001). The ratio of intubation with sedatives alone was high in the non-participant group (P<0.001). The ratio of intubation with paralytics alone was high in the non-participant group (p<0.001). In the participant group, a combination of both agents was used more frequently (P<0.001). Cases of intubation with both agents and preoxy-genation were more prevalent in the participant group (P<0.001). Conclusion. We concluded in this study that SBEAMP had a positive influence on actual clinical