Difficult Airways Make Anesthesia More Risky

Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) in New Orleans (LA, USA).

After a review of 25,000 surgical records, the researchers found that even when patients are told they have a difficult airway, only a few relay that information to future health-care providers. Moreover, they rarely know the cause. Problems that can create difficult airways include severe obesity, sleep apnea, overbite, scarring, jaw fractures, damage from cancer radiation therapy, mouth and throat tumors, rheumatoid arthritis, and exceptionally large tonsils. The researchers say the study supports the idea of creating a central registry of patients with difficult airways, similar to national databases now in place for patients who have had malignant hyperthermia during surgery.

Although unexpected airway problems happen rarely, in a small number of cases, such complications as permanent brain damage can result. Despite the development of new techniques and equipment and the creation of difficult airway guidelines by ASA, "Sudden airway problems remain one of the anesthesiologist's biggest challenges,” noted Dr. Joseph F. Foss, anesthesiologist and one of the researchers.




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