OAA DAS Obstetric Airway Guidelines 2015
Managing the obstetric difficult airway requires unique consideration and skills. Anatomical and physiological changes in pregnancy exacerbate the problem and surgery is often performed with extreme urgency to ensure the wellbeing of a different individual to the patient.
In 2012 the OAA and DAS committees set up a working group to develop national guidelines on the management of difficult airway in obstetrics in the UK. Following extensive work, a detailed literature review has now been published in IJOA, and the obstetric difficult airway guidelines paper and algorithms have been published in Anaesthesia.
At a time of declining numbers and experience in obstetric general anaesthesia, it is hoped that the publication of these national guidelines will improve consistency of clinical practice, reduce adverse events and provide a structure for teaching and training on failed tracheal intubation in obstetrics.