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Abstract When a child with a deteriorating airway needs intervention, it is the anesthesiologist, as the local expert in airway control, who is usually the first person summoned. This can occur in any hospital, requiring all anesthesiologists, no matter what their training, to be prepared to effectively recognize and treat the child with a compromised airway (Hall, 1997). One of the fundamental responsibilities of the anesthesiologist is to maintain adequate gas exchange via a continuously open airway (Benumof, 1993). Failure to maintain a patent airway more than a few minutes results in brain damage or death. Thus, it is not surprising that the inability to successfully manage difficult airways has been responsible for as many as 30% of deaths totally attributed to anesthesia (Chadwick et al., 1990). |