Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T22:51:54.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 30 - Ethical issues arising in airway management

from Section 4 - Ethics and the law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

Ian Calder
Affiliation:
National Hospital for Neurology and Royal London Hospital
Adrian Pearce
Affiliation:
Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses some aspects of airway management that may present ethical dilemmas. Seeking consent for anaesthesia should include a discussion of any specialist or non-routine airway techniques. Providing good information about procedures such as awake fibreoptic intubation and its intended benefits shows respect for patients' autonomy, and can help allay their anxiety. Patients with 'do not attempt resuscitation' (DNAR) decisions may also present for anaesthesia to allow palliative procedures to be performed, or feeding tubes to be placed. This can present a dilemma to anaesthetists regarding the extent to which the normal requirements of safe anaesthesia and airway management might contravene specific details of the DNAR decision. Anaesthetists and critical care clinicians may have to perform airway procedures such as percutaneous tracheostomy on incapacitated patients. Although the legal requirements for making this decision are reasonably clear, some ethical dilemmas are more complex.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×