Revisiting the Difficult Airway with special reference to the new Difficult Airway Society Guidelines

Abstract

Anaesthetists all over the world are doing millions of intubations every year. In about 6% of cases, they will encounter a “difficult airway”.¹ Between 2-8% of cases may be associated with a poor view of the laryngeal inlet,² while failure to achieve intubation is rather uncommon at 1-3 per 1000.² The American Society of Anesthetists (ASA) defines a difficult airway as a clinical scenario in which a conventionally trained anesthesiologist experiences difficulty with facemask ventilation of the upper airway, difficulty with tracheal intubation or both.³ These difficulties may range from the case where simple airway maneuvers will improve the situation to the dangerous and feared scenario of "can’t intubate, can’t ventilate".