Emergent separation of arch bars.

ou are called to attend to an 18-year-old risk-taking dolescent who has just crashed his skateboard. The een has been injured by a blow to his unprotected ead. Unfortunately, the teen has been rendered unonscious and airway intervention is indicated. You pen the lips of the injured teen only to discover that is jaws have been wired together from a previous raumatic event. This scenario could also play out in an individual who evelops vomiting after having arch bars that stabilized he jaw fractures. What will you do? There are plenty of articles regarding the placement f arch bars, infections from mandibular fixation after rauma, etc. (1– 4). Mandible fractures occur from umerous mechanisms, including assaults, falls, pentrating injuries, and motor vehicle collisions (5). The urpose of this report is to describe how arch bars and ires are placed and to delineate which wires to cut in ase the mouth needs to be opened emergently.