Inadequate management of a difficult airway. Case SENSAR of the trimester

A clinical case reported to SENSAR is presented (www.sensar.org). A patient came to the operating room for surgery for parathyroidectomy. She had several predictors of difficult airway management, including a story of difficulties in previous intubations in other hospitals, as the patient reported. Therefore, after evaluation in preoperative consultation, fibreoptic bronchoscopy intubation was recommended. The day of surgery after induction of general anesthesia direct laryngoscopy was performed, without recognizing any glottic structure (Cormack-Lehane grade iv). Conventional laryngoscope was changed to a videolaryngoscope (Airtraq (R)) to try to improve the laryngoscopic view, but there were difficulties with handling and insertion of it, causing minor injuries to the lingual mucosa. Finally, tracheal intubation was achieved after several attempts. Analysis of the incident revealed the active error due to lack of experience of the professional who performed intubation maneuvers, favored by latent factors or contributors as were the complex pathology of the patient and the absence of protocols to difficult airway management in the hospital. Communication and analysis of this incident served to highlight the importance of the security protocols in Anesthesia, and as a result a working group that conducted the current algorithm approach to a difficult airway management was formed, established guidelines for further information patient and deals since clinical training and professional practice for the management of airway devices availables in the hospital. (C) 2014 Sociedad Espanola de Anestesiologia, Reanimacion y Terapeutica del Dolor. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.