title: Is there a gold standard for management of the difficult airway?
abstract: Numerous practice guidelines have been developed to assist clinicians in the management of the difficult airway. The nature of difficult airway management, however, does not provide a practical way of comparing different guidelines or algorithms; no evidence supports one set of guidelines over another. Nevertheless they play an important role in patient safety as dissemination of such guidelines encourages airway practitioners to consider their strategies and formulate specific plans for the management of a predicted or unexpected difficult airway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, MSB 5.020, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Artime
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, MSB 5.020, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: carin.a.hagberg@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Carin A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hagberg
mesh_terms: D058109:Airway Management; D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D017214:Laryngeal Masks; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000503:physiopathology; D012955:Societies, Medical
keywords: Airway management; Algorithms; Difficult airway; Intubation; Practice guidelines