Five Things That Need To Change Now About Current Airway Management Practices
Society for Airway Management, Ovassapian Lecture Chicago 2018, J Adam Law
Dr. Andy Ovassapian was a tireless advocate for safe airway management. A superb clinician, mentor, researcher, and above all, educator, Dr. Ovassapian was a pioneer in advancing the use of awake fiberoptic intubation for the difficult airway patient. Since then, other cognitive and equipment innovations in airway management have further benefited the cause of patient safety. I offer the following thoughts on directions we might need to take from this point forward.
1. Can’t intubate, can’t oxygenate: where do we go from here?
Prevention
Human factors
CICO: right term?
Priming
eFONA: Best technique?
2. Airway management outside the OR: we’re all in this together
Equipment
Staffing
Training and management tequniques
Optimized intubation techniques
3. Video Laryngoscopy: Truly a new paradigm?
'New paradigm or just another tool?'
HA-VL and Mac-VL: apples and oranges
Meta-analyses of "videolaryngoscopy" studies: too heterogeneous
Researchers: Right PICOs, please!
4. We need to change our evolving attitude to awake flexible endoscopic intubation
So we're doing fewer awake intubations? Where's the evidence?
VL for awake intubation: just because you can, does it really mean you should?
5. Does every country really need to publish their own airway management guidelines?
