Open AccessUnexpected difficult airway due to severe upper tracheal distortion: A case report
Author(s) -
Jianwei Zhou,
Chuan-Guang Wang,
Gang Chen,
Youfa Zhou,
Jiafeng Ding,
Jiawei Zhang
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
world journal of clinical cases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.368
H-Index - 10
ISSN - 2307-8960
DOI - 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i26.9348
Subject(s) - medicine , airway , intubation , tracheal intubation , airway management , anesthesia , surgery , radiology , tracheomalacia , airway obstruction
Difficult airway is a significant cause of anesthesia-associated death and disability. Currently, physical examinations of thyromental distance, mouth opening, Mafampaii classification, etc. combined with X-ray, computed tomography (CT), and other imaging technologies are mainly used to evaluate difficult airways. However, in many special cases, i.e. , emergency surgery, imaging examinations cannot be completed preoperatively. Such patients' airway can only be evaluated through general physical examination, which inevitably increases the likelihood of an unexpected difficult airway during anesthesia.