Survey of emergency tracheostomy management in the East of England region

The 4th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists [1] concluded that the majority of airway-related significant complications in ICUs resulted from displaced or blocked tracheostomies and recommended together with the Intensive Care Society and the National Tracheostomy Safety Project that each ICU in the UK should have an emergency airway management plan and guidelines [2]. The aim of this survey was to establish whether such guidelines exist and are familiar to those working within the ICUs of the East of England (EoE), their ease of availability in an emergency and the degree of emergency tracheostomy training within the region.