Table 4.

 Influence of anaesthetist’s experience* on detecting or excluding endobronchial intubation by four methods† (n=20 in each group)

Tube position and diagnosis	Auscultation	Observation	Depth	All three
Endobronchial position:
First year correct/incorrect	9/11	7/13	17/3	20/0
Experienced correct/incorrect	17/3	10/10	18/2	20/0
Tracheal position:
First year correct/incorrect	18/2	16/4	20/0	18/2
Experienced correct/incorrect	19/1	20/0	19/1	20/0
Odds ratio‡ (95% CI)	10.0 (1.4 to 434), P=0.01	4.5 (0.9 to 42.8), P=0.065	1.0 (0.1 to 13.8), P=0.99	P=0.5§

*Experienced=anaesthetists with at least 2 years of training in anaesthetics; first year=residents with maximum of 1 year of training in anaesthetics.

†Bilateral auscultation of chest; observation of symmetrical chest movements; checking cm scale (depth); or combination of all three.

‡Matched odds ratio for correct diagnosis of experienced v inexperienced anaesthetists with 95% confidence interval and exact McNemar’s significance probability.

§Odds ratio and 95% CI not estimable.