1,600 physicians attend WAAM 2024 International Conference on Airway Management

The event took place at Hong Ngoc General Hospital and Viet Duc Friendship Hospital on April 13 and 14.

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health, said: The scientific conference has practical significance for the Vietnamese health sector, with the participation of domestic and foreign health organizations. This is an opportunity for Vietnamese doctors, anesthesiologists and resuscitation experts to exchange expertise with leading experts in the world on airway management, thereby improving knowledge and skills to further improve and strengthen the work of caring for and protecting people's health.

According to experts, good airway management of patients with difficult airways can help minimize complications during anesthesia. However, in reality, there are still difficulties with this work, mainly due to the lack of uniformity and lack of opportunities for practical application in anesthesia procedures in many hospitals. Applying the airway management process requires the understanding of each individual in the anesthesia team about management, as well as consensus and uniformity in the treatment process.

The 2-day Airway Management Conference, with 6 working sessions, attracted nearly 600 doctors to attend in person and 1,000 doctors to attend online. At the Conference, guests listened to a number of highly practical presentations such as: Airway management of laryngeal tumors, preoperative assessment of difficult airways, oxygen reserve efficiency, difficult endotracheal tube removal, difficult airways in children....

“There are two types of difficult airways: pre-determined difficult airways and unpredicted difficult airways,” said Professor Anil Patel, Representative of WAAM. “Pre-determined difficult airways” are identified during anesthesia assessment and airway access, based on prognostic signs; whereas “unpredicted difficult airways” are patients who fall outside the prognostic factors, and are only identified during anesthesia. Dissemination of knowledge on classification, coordination of the entire team according to the plan and treatment of each patient, whether pre-determined or unpredicted, is the key to ensuring ventilation safety for all cases.”