Airway Fire Prevention in the Operating Room

Airway fires during surgical procedures are preventable events that result in devastating outcomes for patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare facilities. Minimization of the risk of fires is a subsection of Standard 6 of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ Standards for Nurse Anesthesia Practice. A central priority of operating room fire mitigation is the minimized use of oxidizing agents. Oxygen is one component of the fire triad responsible for increasing the likelihood of these events, which is controlled by anesthesia providers in the operating room. The primary aim of this quality improvement project was to increase anesthesia provider knowledge pertaining to airway fire risk mitigation strategies through the implementation of an evidenced-based educational intervention. The secondary aim of this quality improvement project was to demonstrate a quantitative reduction of airway fire risk through a comparison of pre-intervention and post-intervention supplemental oxygen administration levels during surgical procedures. The overall goal of this project was to highlight the value of optimized provider knowledge regarding airway fire risk mitigation techniques, especially among high-risk airway fire procedures.