Current Status of Difficult Airway Information Dissemination at a Tertiary Pediatric Hospital

Difficult airway is one of the most common potential risk factors for increased fatality in craniofacial/plastic surgery patients. To date, there is no well-established and all-around difficult airway notification system in China, which has recently been recommended by existing guidelines to improve the care of patients with known difficult airways. This study aimed to investigate the current status of critical information communication concerning difficult airway management in our institute.

Vital information required to establish a difficult airway registry and notification system was collected through a literature review and expert suggestions. After approval by the Research Ethics Board, 3 online questionnaires were developed and sent to surgeons, anesthesiologists, and proxies of the patients. Knowledge of difficult airways, the willingness to be involved in the difficult airway notification system, and the way to disseminate the information were investigated in the 3 groups. The specific information that was disseminated, required, and available was investigated in the anesthesiologist group.

Compared with the surgeons and anesthesiologists, significantly fewer patients knew the definition of a difficult airway and thought it was a potential risk factor. There were no significant differences in the willingness to be informed of the difficulty encountered during airway management. Significant differences were detected in the willingness and way to disseminate the airway information when the participants communicated with different groups. Significantly more patients would disseminate the information to the surgeon and significantly more surgeons would disseminate the information to the patient and the other surgeon. Significantly more anesthesiologists would disseminate the information to the patient and the other anesthesiologists. A significant difference was observed between what was expected and what was available for the anesthesiologist to retrieve the airway information of a patient with known airway difficulty. Significantly more anesthesiologists would notify only the patient of the diagnosis of a difficult airway both oral and written, whereas significantly more anesthesiologists would notify the other anesthesiologist of the specific difficulties in oral only. Most participants agreed to be involved in the difficult airway notification system despite the significantly lower percentage in the patient group (89%).

Difficult airway information dissemination is, at the time of this writing, ineffective, which leads to a large gap between the expectation and practice of the anesthesiologist when caring for a patient with a difficult airway. Thus, a difficult airway registry and notification system should be developed, that has a solid foundation in all the participants.