• Heejoon Jeong, Ji Won Choi, Duk Kyung Kim, Sang Hyun Lee, and Soo Yeon Lee.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2022 Jan 17; 37 (3): e21.

BackgroundIn 2017, we established an airway call (AC) team composed of anesthesiologists to improve emergency airway management outside the operating room. In this retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from the airway registry, we describe the characteristics of patients attended to and practices by the AC team during the first 4 years of implementation.MethodsAll AC team activations in which an airway intervention was performed by the AC team between June 2017 and May 2021 were analyzed.ResultsIn all, 359 events were analyzed. Activation was more common outside of working hours (62.1%) and from the intensive care unit (85.0%); 36.2% of AC activations were due to known or anticipated difficult airway, most commonly because of acquired airway anomalies (n = 49), followed by airway edema or bleeding (n = 32) and very young age (≤ 1 years; n = 30). In 71.3% of the cases, successful intubation was performed by the AC team at the first attempt. However, three or more attempts were performed in 33 cases. The most common device used for successful intubation was the videolaryngoscope (59.7%). Tracheal intubation by the AC team failed in nine patients, who then required surgical airway insertion by otolaryngologists. However, there were no airway-related deaths.ConclusionsWhen coupled with appropriate assistance from an otolaryngologist AC system, an AC team composed of anesthesiologists could be an efficient way to provide safe airway management outside the operating room.Trial RegistrationClinical Research Information Service Identifier: KCT0006643.© 2021 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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