Airway management presents a challenge for health care providers involved in the resuscitation of trauma victims. It requires vigilance, sound judgment and experience in performing various interventions for airway control throughout the spectrum of maneuvers from simple positioning to invasive techniques. Physician anesthesiologists involved in trauma care remain at the forefront of research and education, developing guidelines for establishing an airway in the trauma setting.
In 2005, W. C. Wilson et al.1 modified the 2003 ASA Difficult Airway (DA) Algorithm2 and developed DA algorithms for various trauma settings.
ASA originally developed practice guidelines for management of DA in 1993.3 Since then, these guidelines have been updated twice, in 2003 and 2013,2,4 following an extensive analysis of the scientific literature, thorough review of new evidence, and collected opinions of both experts and randomly selected ASA members. While the 2013 DA algorithm and guidelines for management...