Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul-Sep;16(3):314-321.
doi: 10.4103/sja.sja_90_22. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Airway management in patients suffering from morbid obesity

Wan Jane Liew  1 , Asadi Negar  1 , Prit Anand Singh  2
Affiliations
Review

Airway management in patients suffering from morbid obesity

Wan Jane Liew et al. Saudi J Anaesth. 2022 Jul-Sep.

Abstract

Obesity is no longer a disease of the affluent. The prevalence of obesity has risen at an exponential rate globally, with an increasing burden on healthcare resources. Perioperative management of patients with morbid obesity is known to be challenging, and this is particularly so in the management of their airway, a crucial procedure that requires meticulous planning and modifications. Anesthesiologists will expect to see more patients with obesity in their practice presenting for both bariatric and non-bariatric surgery, or even for emergency surgery. Hence, any generalist anesthesiologist should be confident in managing such a patient, with the appreciation that these patients often pose a significant challenge to the practice of anesthesia. This article describes different techniques and looks at the evidence for airway management in the morbidly obese. Other aspects of perioperative management of such patients are beyond the scope of this article.

Keywords: Airway; anesthesia; obese.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
DAS difficult intubation guidelines
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organisation. Obesity and overweight. 2021. [Last accessed on 2022 Jan 15]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight .
    1. Timothy Garvey W. Clinical definition of overweight and obesity. In: Gonzalez-Campoy J, Hurley D, Garvey W, editors. Bariatric Endocrinology. Cham: Springer; 2019.
    1. World Obesity Federation. Prevalence of Obesity. 2019. [Last accessed on 2022 Jan 15]. Available from: https://www.worldobesity.org/about/about-obesity .
    1. Tremmel M, Gerdtham UG, Nilsson PM, Saha S. Economic burden of obesity: A systematic literature review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017;14:435. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sarma S, Sockalingam S, Dash S. Obesity as a multisystem disease: Trends in obesity rates and obesity-related complications. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2021;23(Suppl 1):3–16. - PubMed