Resuscitation (2006) 68, 101—108 TRAINING AND EDUCATION Retention of CPR performance in anaesthetists  Federico Semeraro a,* , Luciano Signore b , Erga L. Cerchiari a a Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna, Italy b Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, University ‘‘La Sapienza’’, Rome, Italy Received 4 January 2005; received in revised form 3 April 2005; accepted 9 June 2005 KEYWORDS Advanced life support (ALS); Cardiac arrest; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); Training Summary The objective of this study was to evaluate retention of ALS knowledge and performance among anaesthesiologists, who, in Italy, respond to in-hospital emergencies as team leaders. Methods: 47 anaesthesiologists (23 consultants and 24 residents) were invited at one weeks notice to attend a re-evaluation session, 6 months after successful completion of an ERC ALS course. Knowledge retention was assessed by a multiple choice ques- tion test, and skills and management by evaluation of performance as team leader in one of the six standardized CAStest scenarios. During the performance, the time- liness of first defibrillation, completion of the three shock sequence, adrenaline (epinephrine) administration and intubation were recorded. Results were compared between consultants and residents. Results: Compared to the results at the end of the ALS course, the percent of cor- rect answers to the multiple choice question test decreased from 85.89 ± 5.28% to 79.45 ± 6.62% (P < 0.001), the number of candidates achieving a pass perfor- mance decreased from 47/47 to 30/47 (P < 0.001). Time to first defibrillation was 73.38 ± 18.72 s, time for completion of the third defibrillation was 113.04 ± 35.58 s and subsequent ALS interventions were very delayed or forgotten. Comparison between consultants and residents showed that consultants retained knowledge information better, skills decreased comparably in both groups and residents per- formed tasks faster. Conclusions: The significant decay of ALS skills 6 months post-ALS recorded among anaesthesiologists supports the need for periodical reinforcement during intervals before recertification. © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.  A Spanish translated version of the summary of this arti- cle appears as Appendix in the online version at 10.1016/ j.resuscitation.2005.06.011. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 051 6478868; fax: +39 051 6478867. E-mail address: rareseed@mclink.it (F. Semeraro). Introduction The poor quality of resuscitation skills, par- ticularly among medical staff, has been well documented. 1—4 On this basis, major efforts have been promoted to provide permanent in-hospital resuscitation training 5 and advanced life support 0300-9572/$ — see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2005.06.011