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the literature suggests that the use of
specific strategies facilitate the intubation of the difficult airway
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although the degree of benefit for any
specific strategy cannot be determined from the literature, there is
strong agreement among consultants that a preplanned strategy may lead to
improved outcome
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preplanned strategies can be linked together to form airway management
algorithms
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the Task Force considers the technical and
physiologic complexity of life-threatening airway events
to be
sufficiently similar to life-threatening cardiac events to encourage the
use of algorithms in difficult airway management
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Recommendations:
 The anesthesiologist should have a preformulated strategy for intubation
of the difficult airway.
The
algorithm is a strategy recommended by the
Task Force (ASA).
This strategy will depend in part upon the
anticipated surgery, the condition of the patient,
and the skills and
preferences of the anesthesiologist.
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