The Difficult Airway, Part 3, ‘Fiberoptic Intubation,’ ASA Safety Videotape No. 19, will soon be available for distribution by Burroughs Wellcome (BW).

This tape gives an excellent pictorial of endoscopic anatomy and the essential tricks and techniques of preparing a patient for either oral or nasal fiberoptic intubation during anesthesia or while awake.

Burroughs Wellcome funded The Difficult Airway, Part 3, through an educational grant, as well as Parts I and 2, which BW previously distributed. Part 1, “The Algorithm,’ videotape no. 15, detailed development of an ‘algorithm’ for management of the difficult airway. Part 2, “Management The Cricothyroid Membrane,” videotape no. 16, detailed the techniques of transtracheal jet ventilation, retrograde intubation and cricothyroidotomy.

The ASA Patient Safety and Risk Management Committee’s Task Force on The Difficult Airway oversaw the entire Difficult Airway series. Task

force members include the following: Robert A. Caplan, M.D., chairman; Jonathan L. Benumof, M.D., Michael J. Bishop, M.D., Casey D. Blitt, M.D., Frederick W. Cheney, M.D., David M. Gaba, NO., Ellison C. Pierce, Jr., M.D., Mark H. Zornow, M.D., Andranik Ovassapian, M.D., and writer/producer Terence M. Davidson, M.D., Professor of Surgery (Otolaryngology, Head and Neck), Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education, University of California, San Diego.

Hosts, narrators, and participants in fiberoptic intubation procedures in the film were: Terence M. Davidson, M.D., Jonathan L. Benumof, M.D., James H. Harrell, M.D., and Andranik Ovassapian, M.D.

The entire Difficult Airway series is a production of the office of Learning Resources-Television, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. The tape was filmed in the studios at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to producer Davidson, Beth Meyer served as director/editor, Dan Burke was engineer, and Beth Meyer and Mark Kearns were on cameras. Special thanks went to Scott W. Granger, Pentax Precision Instument Corp.

All tapes in the ASA Patient Safety Videotape Series, many of which are still available, are distributed by BW representatives.

Dr. Pierce is President of the APSF and Executive Producer of the ASA Patient Safety Videotape Series.