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Airway Clinical Tips Preparing for Grad School/Residency

#10 – 10 Quick Tips for Learning Airway Management

This is a distillation of 10 key tips to help folks who are learning airway management improve their skills. This show gets straight to the point: 10 tips for airway management in 10 minutes.

10 Tips for Airway Management

1. Develop a growth mindset and practice deliberately

2. Do a good airway assessment

3. Develop and follow a plan

4. Control your environment

5. Position the patient and yourself for success

6. Preoxygenate adequately

7. Communicate effectively

8. Choose meds appropriately and let them work

9. Take your time with laryngoscopy

10. Recognize when you need to change your plan and do so deliberately

Chong, J. (2016).  Airway management in obese patients.  EMNote.  Retrieved from http://www.emnote.org/emnotes/airway-management-in-obese-patients 
This is my personal ramp preference – a stack of blankets wrapped with one blanket (which helps when removing the ramp after intubation) and either a pillow or foam shay on top.

Resources:

Achar, S. K., Pai, A. J., & Shenoy, U. K. (2014). Apneic oxygenation during simulated prolonged difficult laryngoscopy: comparison of nasal prongs versus nasopharyngeal catheter: a prospective randomized controlled study. Anesthesia, essays and researches, 8(1), 63.

Booth, A. W. G., Vidhani, K., Lee, P. K., & Thomsett, C. M. (2017). SponTaneous Respiration using IntraVEnous anaesthesia and Hi-flow nasal oxygen (STRIVE Hi) maintains oxygenation and airway patency during management of the obstructed airway: an observational study. BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia118(3), 444-451

Caputo, N., Azan, B., Domingues, R., Donner, L., Fenig, M., Fields, D., … & McCarty, M. (2017). Emergency Department use of Apneic Oxygenation versus usual care during rapid sequence intubation: A randomized controlled trial (The ENDAO Trial). Academic Emergency Medicine24(11), 1387-1394.

Chong, J. (2016).  Airway management in obese patients.  EMNote.  Retrieved from http://www.emnote.org/emnotes/airway-management-in-obese-patients 

Dearani, J. A., Gold, M., Leibovich, B. C., Ericsson, K. A., Khabbaz, K. R., Foley, T. A., … & Daly, R. C. (2017). The role of imaging, deliberate practice, structure, and improvisation in approaching surgical perfection. The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery154(4), 1329-1336.

Ericsson, K. A. (2015). Acquisition and Maintenance of Medical Expertise: A Perspective From the Expert – Performance Approach With Deliberate Practice. Academic Medicine90(11), 1471. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000939

Ericsson, A., & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertise. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related domains. Academic medicine79(10), S70-S81.

e Silva, L. O. J., Cabrera, D., Barrionuevo, P., Johnson, R. L., Erwin, P. J., Murad, M. H., & Bellolio, M. F. (2017). Effectiveness of apneic oxygenation during intubation: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of emergency medicine70(4), 483-494. 

Heard, A., Toner, A. J., Evans, J. R., Palacios, A. M. A., & Lauer, S. (2017). Apneic oxygenation during prolonged laryngoscopy in obese patients: a randomized, controlled trial of buccal RAE tube oxygen administration. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 124(4), 1162-1167.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Lee, P. K., Booth, A. W. G., Vidhani, K., & Bath, J. M. (2017). Spontaneous Breathing For the Difficult Airway: STRIVE Hi Demonstrates Its Versatility. Anesthesiology News.

Moulton, C. E., Regehr, G., Mylopoulos, M., & MacRae, H. M. (2007). Slowing down when you should: a new model of expert judgment. Academic Medicine: Journal Of The Association Of American Medical Colleges82(10 Suppl), S109-S116.

Myatra, S. N., Kalkundre, R. S., & Divatia, J. V. (2017). Optimizing education in difficult airway management: meeting the challenge. Current Opinion in Anesthesiology30(6), 748-754.

Nørskov, A. K., Rosenstock, C. V., Wetterslev, J., Astrup, G., Afshari, A., & Lundstrøm, L. H. (2015). Diagnostic accuracy of anaesthesiologists’ prediction of difficult airway management in daily clinical practice: a cohort study of 188 064 patients registered in the Danish Anaesthesia Database. Anaesthesia70(3), 272-281. [THIS IS THE STUDY SHOWING 93% OF DIFFICULT INTUBATIONS AND 94% OF DIFFICULT MASK VENTILATION CASES WERE NOT ANTICIPATED.] 

Patel, A., & Nouraei, S. A. R. (2015). Transnasal Humidified Rapid‐Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange (THRIVE): a physiological method of increasing apnoea time in patients with difficult airways. Anaesthesia70(3), 323-329.

Patel, A., & Nouraei, S. A. R. (2016) Nasal ventilation: oxygenation, no desat, and thrive.  Anesthesiology News.  Retrieved from http://www.anesthesiologynews.com/Review-Articles/Article/08-16/Nasal-Ventilation-Oxygenation-NO-DESAT-and-THRIVE/37294/ses=ogst

Pratt, M. (2017). A Practical Approach to Apneic Oxygenation during Endotracheal Intubation. J Anesth Clin Res8(696), 2.

Pratt, M., & Miller, A. B. (2016). Apneic Oxygenation: A Method to Prolong the Period of Safe Apnea. AANA Journal, 84(5), 322-328.

Ramachandran, S. K., Cosnowski, A., Shanks, A., & Turner, C. R. (2010). Apneic oxygenation during prolonged laryngoscopy in obese patients: a randomized, controlled trial of nasal oxygen administration. Journal of clinical anesthesia, 22(3), 164-168.

Weingart, S. D., & Levitan, R. M. (2012). Preoxygenation and prevention of desaturation during emergency airway management. Annals of emergency medicine59(3), 165-175.

By Jon Lowrance

Jon Lowrance, MSN, CRNA is the producer of Anesthesia Guidebook, the go-to guide for anesthesia providers.