[Airway management for patient safety: preface and comments]

Maintenance of patent airway has an essential role in respiratory management. The management of difficult airway is one of problems associated with the maintenance of airway patency. "Cannot intubate, cannot ventilate (CICV)" scenario is rare, but it usually leads to serious morbidity and mortality related to anesthesia. A wide variety of equipments and anesthetic techniques can be used to deal with this emergency situation. However, the recent practice of airway management seems to be very complex, depending on the introduction of new airway devices including laryngeal mask airway (LMA). In order to provide the reader with valuable information as to the new devices and airway-associated problems, five experts in this field contributed to this special issue of difficult airway problems.