Abstract
Modern surgical practice necessitates safe and efficient management of the airway in order to administer anesthesia in a controlled manner. It is the primary role and responsibility of the anesthesiologist to assess, secure, and monitor a patient’s airway in the perioperative setting. Although performed on a daily basis in seemingly routine fashion, unanticipated problems in airway management will be encountered by even the most skilled anesthesiologist in anywhere from 1 % to 3 % of patients undergoing general endotracheal anesthesia [1]. The effective identification of such potentially “difficult” airways should be the focus of the preoperative assessment by both surgeon and anesthesiologist in order to develop a coordinated plan of care and minimize the risk of precipitating a true airway emergency.
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Osborn, I.P., Kleinberger, A.J., Gurudutt, V.V. (2013). Airway Management, Emergencies and the Difficult Airway. In: Levine, A., Govindaraj, S., DeMaria, Jr., S. (eds) Anesthesiology and Otolaryngology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4184-7_8
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