OBJECTIVE To evaluate the utility of the Cook airway exchange catheter (CAEC) for extubation/reintubation in pediatric patients with a known difficult airway. DESIGN Prospective, nonrandomized. SETTING Pediatric intensive care unit; single academic institution. PATIENTS Twenty intubated children </=18 yrs of age with a known difficult airway requiring extubation. INTERVENTIONS The CAEC ...

Negative pressure pulmonary edema following tracheal extubation is an uncommon and life-threatening complication of patients undergoing endotracheal intubation and general anesthesia for surgical procedures. The common pattern in these cases is the occurrence of an episode of airway obstruction upon emergence from general anesthesia, usually caused by laryngospasm. Patients who are predisposed ...

Indian Journal of Anaesthesia | Vol. 60 | Issue 10 | Oct 2016 778 airway obstruction in adults.[4] Minor drawbacks include delay in extubation time by 10–15 minutes and accommodating another tube inside the pharynx. Though laryngeal oedema is mostly transient and self‐limiting, clinically significant post‐extubation laryngeal oedema occurs in up to 30% patients, with 4% needing reintubation.[3]...

BACKGROUND Perioperative respiratory complications after adenotonsillectomy (T&A) are common and have been described to occur more frequently in children below 3 years of age, those with cranio-facial abnormalities, Down syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, morbid obesity, and failure to thrive. AIMS To investigate the association between awake vs deep tracheal extubation and perioperative resp...

We read with interest the recently published review in Critical Care about post-extubation laryngeal edema and stridor by Pluijms et al. [1]. The review considers in detail the risk factors for post-extubation respiratory failure and describes a post-extubation algorithm for its prevention and reduction. We recently published a case report describing the occurrence of post-extubation stridor le...

The difficult airway, although rare, still occurs with a frequency sufficient to require that all personnel associated with airway management be familiar with methods to use when confronted with a challenging airway. Methods of airway assessment are helpful but lack adequate sensitivity and specificity. The most effective means of anticipating a difficult airway lies in an integrated approach u...

The difficult airway has been defined as a “clinical situation in which a conventionally trained anesthesiologist experiences difficulty with mask ventilation of the upper airway, tracheal intubation, or both.” Given the potentially lifethreatening consequences, the American Society of Anesthesiology has developed an airway algorithm that focuses on establishing an airway, generally for the ind...