Patients with difficult airways should be informed of such difficulties and they should be identified in the healthcare system. Click here to read the WA Coroner's Findings and Recommendations.

Options include:

• Use of the following 2 form letters to inform the referring General Practitioner (GP) and colleagues (Surgeon, Hospital Medical Records Department)

• Register the patient in the MedicAlert system via the letter to the GP

• Register the patient in the WA Health Department's Medical Alert feature in the Topaz software system (not available to private hospitals at this time)

The following sample letters are reproduced with the kind permission of Dr Edward T. Crosby, Department of Anaesthesia, University of Ottawa.  See: Crosby ET, et al.  The unanticipated difficult airway with recommendations for management.  Can J Anaesth 1998; 45:757-776.