Practice Guidelines for Management of the Difficult Airway

PRACTICE guidelines are systematically developed recommendations that assist the practitioner and patient in making decisions about health care. These recommendations may be adopted, modified, or rejected according to clinical needs and constraints. Practice guidelines are not intended as standards or absolute requirements. The use of practice guidelines cannot guarantee any specific outcome. Practice guidelines are subject to revision as warranted by the evolution of medical knowledge, technology, and practice. They provide basic recommendations that are supported by analysis of the current literature and by a synthesis of expert opinion, open forum commentary, and clinical feasibility data. This revision includes data published since the “Practice Guidelines for Management of the Difficult Airway” were adopted by the American Society of Anesthesiologists in 1992; it also includes data and recommendations for a wider range of management techniques than was previously addressed.