A Comparison of International Difficult Airway Guidelines

We have been asked to consider the similarities and differences in airway management algorithms between North America and Europe. The easy answer would be that the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) 2015 guidelines provide a strategy for the management of unanticipated difficult intubations, while the 2022 ASA Practice Guidelines for Management of the Difficult Airway provide strategies to guide the management of patients with difficult airways (Br J Anaesth 2015;115:827-48; Anesthesiology 2022;136:31-81). At first glance, the DAS 2015 guidelines appear most focused. It is, however, worth remembering that DAS created a whole suite of guidelines devoted to context-specific areas of practice: pediatrics, obstetrics, the critically ill, and in the performance of awake tracheal intubation (asamonitor.pub/3FAixMU; Anaesthesia 2015;70:1286-306; Br J Anaesth 2018;120:323-52; Anaesthesia 2020;75:509-28). Several of these topics are covered in the more comprehensive guidelines of other societies/organizations, even though this would seem to...