Airway assessment

Question 1

What are the key components of the airway assessment?

Answer 1

Mouth opening - can you fit 3 fingers inside
Jaw protrusion
Neck movement (head up and down)
Dentition - crowns, caps, dentures, cement, loose/wobbly teeth

Question 2

What score is used to grade how good someone’s airway is? What is it an assessment of?

Answer 2

Mallampati score

The distance from the roof of the mouth to the base of the mouth

Question 3

What is the Cormack-Lehane grading?

Answer 3

How the epiglottis sits over the vocal cords (1 = vocal cords easily seen, 4 = barely seen, difficult for intubation)

Question 4

Name another grading system used to assess the difficulty of the airway?

Answer 4

Wilson’s score
Weight, ability to move head, jaw, mandible and what type of teeth they have
(to score riskiness)

Question 5

Risk scoring of morbidity/mortality during anaesthesia

Answer 5

ASA grading system
1-6

ASA 1= normal
2- mild systemic disease incl. social drinker
3. severe disease
4. severe disease with threat to life e.g. MI
5. not expected to survive without operation
6. declared brain dead, whose organs are being removed for donor purposes

Question 6

What is the WHO surgical safety checklist?

Answer 6

A checklist to ensure patient safety, from signing in, time out, to sign out

Question 7

What is rapid sequence induction?

Answer 7

Rapid intubation in order to reduce the chances of aspiration

Question 8

When would you do RSI?

Answer 8

Anything that means that the relaxation of the oesophagus poses an increased chance of reflux into the trachea, e.g. existing reflux/weak oesophageal sphincter

Reflux
Delayed gastric emptying
Incompetent lower oesophageal sphincter, hiatus hernia, GORD
Altered conscious level 
Neurological disorders
pregnancy 
difficult airway