TY - JOUR T1 - Training requirements for respiratory physicians performing ultrasound-guided transesophageal fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for mediastinal staging JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - 4722 AU - Lars Konge AU - Jouke Annema AU - Paul Clementsen AU - Peter Vilmann AU - Charlotte Ringsted Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/4722.abstract N2 - Accurate mediastinal nodal staging is important for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer. EUS-FNA is an alternative to mediastinoscopy, but EUS training requirements are under discussion. The purpose of this study was to explore the amount of training needed to establish basic competency in EUS-FNA.Five experienced respiratory physicians from Denmark and the Netherlands were included in the study (3 men, 2 women). They had no prior experience in EUS. Each participant completed between 20 and 30 supervised EUS-FNA procedures. All procedures were video-recorded and blindly and independently assessed by three experts using a validated assessment tool.Data will be presented as individual and averaged learning curves. Currently the first participant has finished training and her learning curve is presented in the figure below.Differences in the acquisition of skills between trainees will be presented. Preliminary data suggest that performance of approximately 25 procedures secures basic competence in EUS-FNA for mediastinal staging. ER -