Airway Management

ABSTRACT

Airway management is still perceived as the greatest patient safety issue and the key task that anesthesiologists perform. Management includes mask ventilation, use of a laryngoscope, and the endotracheal intubation and extubation of the patient. Difficulty can be encountered at any of these stages, and can be a major cause of anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality. Competence in airway management requires knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the airway, ability to access the patient's airway for the anatomic features that correlate with difficulties in airway management, skill with the many devices used in airway management, including a variety of recently-introduced airway tools, and the appropriate application of the sophisticated algorithm for difficult airway management. Development and clinical distribution of supraglottic airway devices and their enhancement, as well as the broad acceptance of awake fiber-optic intubation, has led to profound changes in the strategy for managing a difficult airway. Including the American Society of Anesthesiologists, many countries have developed their own airway management algorithm these days. Nevertheless, massive national and international deficits still exist in implementing these guidelines into practice as well as the implicated structural requirements with respect to education, reflection, team building and equipment concerning each individual institution. In regard to this situation, it is the recommendation of the author that our country develop and institute such a standardized system of airway management.