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The Difficult Airway Response Team (DART) was implemented in July 2008 to address emergent difficult airway situations. The main objective of this study was to highlight the unique role and skill set that otolaryngologists bring and their impact on patient outcomes.

Retrospective review of prospectively collected data from the hospital's airway registry.

We collected data on demographics, airway characteristics, airway management techniques used by each specialty, and clinical outcomes (such as cricothyrotomies) for patients for whom a code was activated between July 2006 and June 2010. We compared data between pre‐ and post‐DART cohorts and between DART and non‐DART patients using a matched case‐control approach.

Of the 2,826 codes, 90 patients required DART management between July 2008 and June 2010. Body mass index …