Poiseuille’s law is central to the understanding and management of all airway obstructions in children, with the clinical impact of even a small reduction in radius being compounded by the inverse relationship of the resistance to the radius to the power 4. Indeed deterioration from a ‘mild’ obstruction to life threatening airway compromise may be heralded by slight decrease in airway diameter ...

Respiratory failure in infants and children is a common cause of ICU admission, and diseases that jeopardize the airway are the most frequent cause of cardiac arrest in neonatal and pediatric patients.1,2 In neonates specifically, there are numerous causes for respiratory distress, with upper-airway obstruction being an important source of morbidity and mortality.3,4 This case will discuss the ...

Obstruction of the upper airway is recognized as a feature of acromegaly. Evans, Hipkin and Murray (1977) found abnormal flow volume curves suggesting upper airway obstruction in 6 out of 20 patients with acromegaly and no other cardiorespiratory disease. Such obstruction has been proposed as a cause of shortness of breath (Siegler, 1952), problems with endotracheal intubation (Kitahata, 1971),...

Clinical signs of upper airway obstruction provide valuable information regarding the degree of airway compromise and the anatomic compartment involved but are not specific to any disease process. The purpose of the diagnostic workup is to determine the extent and nature of the condition. The extent of the physical examination depends on the degree of upper airway obstruction, and complete eval...

Various sites along the upper airway (UA) are prone to narrow and collapse in patients affected by obstructive sleep apnoea. Sleep stages may eventually alter these sites. The present study was designed to determine the site(s) of UA obstruction and the influence of sleep stage on the pattern of obstruction. Twenty eight obstructive sleep apnoea patients underwent UA pressure measurements durin...

Surgical success for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) depends on identifying sites of obstruction in the upper airway. In this study, we investigated sites of obstruction by evaluating dynamic changes in the upper airway using drug-induced sleep computed tomography (DI-SCT) in patients with OSA. Thirty-five adult patients with OSA were prospectively enrolled. Sleep was induced with propofol under ...