This program is sponsored by Teleflex Medical Incorporated Visit Clinical Foundations online at www.clinicalfoundations.org www.clinicalfoundations.org Management of the Difficult Airway Irene Osborn, MD Adequate airway management is crucial to the success of anesthesia, and special effort is often required for patients with difficult airways. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Tas...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effects of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) on delivered volumes and pressures during mechanical ventilation, utilizing a lung model. DESIGN Bench study. SETTING Laboratory. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using varying-sized endotracheal tubes (ETTs), we ventilated a lung model at two levels of compliance utilizing different modes and parameters of ventilation. After ...

Dear Editor, Endotracheal intubation (ETI) is a simple, rapid, safe and non-surgical technique for airway management. It maintains airway patency, protects the lungs from aspiration, and permits leak-free ventilation during mechanical ventilation. The anesthesiologists’ knowledge, technical skills and crisis management capabilities play an important role in controlling the occurrence of unwante...

BACKGROUND The air-Q Intubating Laryngeal Airway (ILA) (Cookgas LLC, Mercury Medical, Clearwater, FL) is a supraglottic airway device available in pediatric sizes, with design features to facilitate passage of cuffed tracheal tubes when used to guide tracheal intubation. We designed this prospective observational study of the ILA to assess the ease of its placement in paralyzed pediatric patien...

BACKGROUND Malpositioning of the endotracheal tube within the airway leads to serious complications such as endobronchial intubation. Prediction of the correct depth of an endotracheal tube is important and should be individualized. The manubriosternal joint (MSJ) is on the same horizontal plane with the tracheal carina. We compared the straight length from the upper incisor to the MSJ in the f...