Performance of the anesthesiologists in 12 Departments of Anesthesia in Greece.

To assess the performance of anesthesiologists in 12 Departments of Anesthesia a questionnaire was completed by 132 anesthesiologists. The questionnaire included preoperative visit, preoxygenation, the anaesthetic record, time of stay in the operating room, management of apnea at the end of surgery and rapid sequence induction. Anesthesiologists were also asked if they keep update and how. Eighty-nine percent of the anesthesiologists visit the patients preoperatively, 77% preoxygenate them routinely, 22% preoxygenate only the emergency patients, 0.8% never preoxygenate, 83% keep an anesthetic record, and the average time they stay in the operating room is 84% of the procedures. If the patient is apneic at the end of surgery, 43% of the anesthesiologists use peripheral nerve stimulator, 41% give atropine/neostigmine, 13% repeat the neostigmine, and 82% continue mechanical ventilation. The 12 Departments of Anesthesia differed significantly between them in all the above variables (P < 0.01-P < 0.0001 for each of the variables between them). To induce anesthesia in patients with full stomach, 89% give thiopentone and succinylcholine, 4% thiopentone and nondepolarizing relaxant, 76% apply cricoid pressure and 5% inflate the lungs via a face mask, (P < 0.0001, P = 0.018 and P < 0.0001 respectively). Eighty-seven percent of the anesthesiologists keep update attending congresses, 76% departmental meetings (P = 0.0015 within the 12 Hospitals), 86% reading journals and 78% reading textbooks. The 12 Departments of Anesthesia presented a uniformity in updating knowledge but not in practicing anesthesia.