Approach to Difficult Airway Management

Abstract

According to the 2013 American Society of Anesthesiology Practice Guidelines for Management of the Difficult Airway, a term “difficult airway” refers to clinical situations in which a likelihood of 1) difficulty with patient cooperation or consent, 2) difficult mask ventilation, 3) difficult supraglottic airway placement, 4) difficult laryngoscopy, 5) difficult intubation, and/or 6) difficult surgical airway is high. Several considerations are important when approaching each individual clinical scenario. An airway management plan should include patient-specific and situation-specific factors that take into account findings of bedside airway evaluation, prior history of intubations, the acuity of the situation requiring intubation, and the level of airway obstruction. The following module provides an overview of these factors along with a brief introduction to specific clinical situations in which some airway management strategies are more suitable.1,2 This review contains 10 figures, 7 tables and 32 references Key words: Difficult airway, intubation, LEMON score, High-Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygenation, THRIVE