title: Anesthesia for thoracic surgery: a survey of middle eastern practice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main objective of this survey is to describe the current practice of thoracic anesthesia in the Middle Eastern (ME) region.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective online survey. An invitation to participate was e-mailed to all members of the ME thoracic-anaesthesia group. A total of 58 members participated in the survey from 19 institutions in the Middle East. Questions concerned ventilation strategies during one-lung ventilation (OLV), anesthesia regimen, mode of postoperative analgesia, use of lung isolation techniques, and use of i.v. fluids.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Volume-controlled ventilation was favored over pressure-controlled ventilation (62% vs 38% of respondents, P<0.05); 43% report the routine use of positive end-expiratory pressure. One hundred percent of respondents report using double-lumen tube (DLT) as a first choice airway to establish OLV. Nearly a third of respondents, 31.1%, report never using bronchial blocker (BB) in their thoracic anesthesia practice. Failure to pass a DLT and difficult airway are the most commonly cited indications for BB use. Regarding postoperative analgesia, the majority 61.8% favor thoracic epidural analgesia over other techniques (P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our survey provides a contemporary snapshot of the ME thoracic anesthetic practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdelazeem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eldawlatly
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turkistani
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shelley
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Tahan
authors.forename: Alistair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macfie
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kinsella