Articles: intubation.
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Case Reports
Management of the difficult pediatric airway in an austere environment using the lightwand.
Increasingly, medical teams are providing sophisticated surgical treatment to pediatric patients in developing nations. Such care is often administered under relatively austere conditions using easily transported equipment. Because some of these patients may present with congenital or acquired airway abnormalities that make direct laryngoscopy difficult or impossible, alternative methods of endotracheal intubation should be available. ⋯ Use of the lightwand has a proven record of success and obviates the need for the heavier, more delicate, and more expensive flexible fiber-optic laryngoscope or pediatric bronchoscope. Two cases are reported in which pediatric patients with difficult airway anatomy due to severe burn scar contractures were successfully and easily intubated using the lightwand. This technique is useful for management of the difficult pediatric airway in the austere environment of the typical medical relief mission.
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Comment Letter Case Reports
The length of the blade is more important than its design in difficult tracheal intubation.
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J Burn Care Rehabil · Mar 1990
Smoke inhalation and airway management at a regional burn unit: 1974 to 1983. II. Airway management.
According to criteria established to define patients with smoke inhalation, the airway management of all victims of smoke and burns (1974 to 1984; n = 805) was reviewed. Fourteen percent of all patients were intubated (n = 117); patients intubated on the day of injury (n = 41) were more likely to extubate themselves or have technical problems with the endotracheal tube. Twelve percent of patients with smoke inhalation without burns required endotracheal intubation versus 62% of those with burns. ⋯ The prolonged length of stay for patients with a tracheotomy relates to the severity of the burn. Tracheotomy was not the cause of death in any patient. The strategy of grafting the neck before tracheotomy was used successfully in eight patients.
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Aspiration of gastric contents continues to be one of the most serious complications of general anesthesia. Laryngeal competence may be reduced immediately following endotracheal extubation, which may increase the risk of aspiration. ⋯ Evaluation of radiographs from both groups revealed that no aspirate of barium was detected in the tracheobronchial trees of any of the dogs. This study establishes that there is no difference in the risk of aspiration following endotracheal extubation using the canine model regardless of the clinical technique employed.