Major complications of airway management in the UK: results of the Fourth National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society. Part 1: Anaesthesia †
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Abstract
This project was devised to estimate the incidence of major complications of airway
management during anaesthesia in the UK and to study these events.
Reports of major airway management complications during anaesthesia (death, brain
damage, emergency surgical airway, unanticipated intensive care unit admission) were
collected from all National Health Service hospitals for 1 yr. An expert panel assessed
inclusion criteria, outcome, and airway management. A matched concurrent census estimated
a denominator of 2.9 million general anaesthetics annually.
Of 184 reports meeting inclusion criteria, 133 related to general anaesthesia: 46
events per million general anaesthetics [95% confidence interval (CI) 38-54] or one
per 22,000 (95% CI 1 per 26-18,000). Anaesthesia events led to 16 deaths and three
episodes of persistent brain damage: a mortality rate of 5.6 per million general anaesthetics
(95% CI 2.8-8.3): one per 180,000 (95% CI 1 per 352-120,000). These estimates assume
that all such cases were captured. Rates of death and brain damage for different airway
devices (facemask, supraglottic airway, tracheal tube) varied little. Airway management
was considered good in 19% of assessable anaesthesia cases. Elements of care were
judged poor in three-quarters: in only three deaths was airway management considered
exclusively good.
Although these data suggest the incidence of death and brain damage from airway management
during general anaesthesia is low, statistical analysis of the distribution of reports
suggests as few as 25% of relevant incidents may have been reported. It therefore
provides an indication of the lower limit for incidence of such complications. The
review of airway management indicates that in a majority of cases, there is 'room
for improvement'.