THE MULTIFUNCTIONAL UPPER AIRWAY, its mechanical properties, and the muscles that control its shape and size are complex (Fig. 1). As highlighted by Fregosi and Ludlow (7) in their mini-review on activation of upper airway muscles during breathing and swallowing, precise coordination of the upper airway is essential for efficient swallowing. Sleep and the supine posture place additional demands...

reinforced tubes are commonly used to minimize the opportunity of upper airway obstruction in patients at risk. there are a few reports of the airway obstruction resulted from kinked reinforced tubes. this report describes the obstruction of a reinforced tube in an adult patient who underwent tonsillectomy. under general anesthesia; an armoured endotracheal tube was inserted into the trachea un...

EDITOR: We read with interest Drs Martin-Castro and Montero’s report on the use of the flexible laryngeal mask (FLMA) as an alternative to reinforced tracheal tube for upper chest, head and neck oncoplastic surgery [1]. We seek some clarifications from them with regard to the operations concerned. How many of the patients whose airways were managed with the FLMA had oro-pharyngeal malignancies?...

There are a number of studies in the literature, that associate nasopharyngeal airway obstruction, as a result of adenoid enlargement, to the development of skeletal and dental abnormalities. However, the etiologic role of hypertrophied adenoids and tonsils in developing an aberrant dentofacial growth is not clear, yet. The present investigation attempted to study the incidence of maxillary pos...

A Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic, progressive, and potentially life-threatening disorder that can be effectively treated with surgery. It is also a condition that orthodontists see in their offices every day; thus, they are ideally suited to diagnose and treat it. OSA is related to an anatomic obstruction of the upper airway; surgical correction of the obstruction is effective and d...

abstract acute upper airway obstruction (uao) is a life threatening complication that is well recognized after carotid endarterectomy, thyroidectomy and pharyngeal area intervention. it is not widely acknowledged that airway obstruction can occur after cervical spinal fusion surgery which was first described in 1955. there are a number of common postoperative problems which may become apparent ...

Monitoring variations in the upper airway narrowing during sleep is invasive and expensive. Since snoring sounds are generated by air turbulence and vibrations of the upper airway due to its narrowing; snoring sounds may be used as a non-invasive technique to assess upper airway narrowing. Our goal was to develop a subject-specific acoustic model of the upper airway to investigate the impacts o...

The aim of the present retrospective study was to evaluate the influence of age and gender on upper and lower airway width and upper lip length. In this study, 390 lateral cephalograms were divided into 13 age groups (ranging from 6 to 18 years) and were analyzed. The intergroup differences were analyzed using a MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of the Variance), and the intragroup differences were...