An Update in Airway Management: Devices and Techniques

Abstract

Airway management includes a set of maneuvers and medical procedures performed to both prevent airway obstruction and relieve it. This ensures an open pathway for gas exchange between a patient's lungs and the atmosphere. This is accomplished by either clearing a previously obstructed airway; or by preventing airway obstruction in cases such as anaphylaxis, the obtunded patient, or medical sedation. Airway obstruction can be caused by the tongue, foreign objects, the tissues of the airway itself, and body fluids such as blood and gastric contents (aspiration). Extraglottic techniques use devices that are designed to have the distal tip resting above the level of the glottis when in its final seated position. Extraglottic devices ensure patency of the upper respiratory tract without entry into the trachea by bridging the oral and pharyngeal spaces. There are many methods of subcategorizing this family of devices includi