Whether in the office, surgery center, operating room or elsewhere, loss of the airway is anxiety-provoking for the entire surgical team. This session will discuss in detail emergency cricothyroidotomy and emergency tracheotomy and will review options to facilitate difficult intubation and other nonsurgical means of airway establishment for adults and children.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants should be able to:
Formulate a sequence of nonsurgical airway interventions that correlate with the status of the patient’s declining airway.
Review the applications and limitations of cricothyroidotomy and tracheotomy in the acute airway emergency patient.
Relate the level of severity of the patient’s airway status to the changes in the patient's physical findings as the airway deteriorates and the crisis becomes more acute.
.jpg "Eric J. Dierks, DMD, MD, FACS, FRCSEd photo")