Management of the Difficult Airway Flashcards
What are the criteria for inability to ventilate a patient?
Anesthetist cannot cause a life-sustaining amount of gas exchange to occur with a jaw thrust, oral or nasal airway
What are the criterial for the inability to intubate a patient?
Anesthetist cannot place an ETT through the vocal cords within a life-sustaining period of time
What are the causes of inability to ventilate?
Laryngospasm Supraglottic soft tissue relaxation Chest wall rigidity Pathologic, glottic and subglottic Equipment failure
What are the causes of a laryngospasm?
Nerve injury or light anesthesia
What are the structures of the supraglottic soft tissues that can cause an obstruction?
Tongue, epiglottis, soft palate and pharyngeal walls
What factors can cause chest wall rigidity?
Breath holding and narcotic induced
What pathological processes can result in an inability to ventilate?
Foreign body, edema, infection, vocal cord palsy, stenosis and compression
According to the ASA closed case reports, what factor contributed to the decline in respiratory claims?
The use of pulse oximeters and CO2 monitoring
What major problem were providers more likely to recognize with CO2 monitoring and pulse oximetry?
Identifying esophageal intubation
What is the most common adverse respiratory event according to ASA closed claims database?
Failure to ventilate
What is another name for the intubating LMA?
Fastrach LMA
What are the typical uses for a glidescope?
Known difficult airway
Rescue
Anterior Larynx
Poor neck mobility
What are common requirements for a fiberoptic intubation?
Difficult airway or C spine injury
Assessment of double lumen ETT
Airway evaluation
Rigid laryngoscope that has an anatomically shaped scope with fiberoptic bundle and eye piece
Bullard scope
Rigid anatomically shaped blade with separate flexible fiberoptic scope
Wu scope
