[Practice guidelines for management of the difficult airway: update by the American Society of Anesthesiologists task force]. / "Practice Guidelines for Management of the Difficult Airway" : Update der American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force.

In February 2013 the Committee of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Task Force published the amended version of the "Practice guidelines for management of the difficult airway" which replace the recommendations from 2003. The amended version re-evaluated the recommendations from 2003 in 2011, evaluated recently published studies and recommendations and included them in the new practice guidelines. In particular, new technical developments, such as the recently established video-assisted intubation procedure were taken into consideration. Despite the many publications in the field of airway management the evidence resulting from the data obtained from recent publications is so low that the new information does not necessitate any amendments to the existing guidelines. In short, the current guidelines basically correspond to the previous version published 10 years ago but are, however, more than twice as extensive. This article summarizes and comments on the cornerstones of the guidelines.

Power requirements and resolution of real-time holograms in saturable absorbers and absorbing liquids.

Diffraction gratings have been induced in absorbing liquids and saturable glasses with a ruby laser. The mechanism for the production of the gratings has been discussed. The diffraction efficiency and the resolving power of the materials has been measured and found to agree with calculations based on the models of a thermal phase grating and a grating produced by saturable absorption.