Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T22:43:04.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 29 - Airway management with limited resources

from Section 3 - Specialties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

Ian Calder
Affiliation:
National Hospital for Neurology and Royal London Hospital
Adrian Pearce
Affiliation:
Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses examples of airway management techniques which do not rely on expensive equipment. Ketamine anaesthesia with spontaneous breathing is a particularly useful anaesthetic for patients with facial burns requiring debridement and skin grafting. If the airway anatomy is abnormal and a difficult laryngoscopy under anaesthesia is anticipated, it is important to maintain spontaneous breathing until the airway is secure. In such cases one may consider laryngoscopy or insertion of a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in the awake or lightly sedated patient. Many of the principles, such as adequate topical anaesthesia and the methods of guiding the tip of the tube into the larynx, are similar to blind nasal intubation. Retrograde intubation is preferred to tracheostomy if the cause of airway obstruction is likely to resolve in 72 hours and/or there is a fresh surgical incision in the neck or upper chest (sternotomy).
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×