Airway Management Issues - Dr. Cordle

Kids are Different

- Larger heads, tongues, smaller nostrils
- Cricoid ring determines size of ET tube
- Bradycardia is a BAD SIGN.

Signs of Increased Respiratory Effort

- Assumed position
- Bobbing head
- If kids are pulling off their mask, they might need to be intubated.

Positioning

- sniffing position, sometimes achieved without any padding
- jaw thrust is preferred to chin tilt
- always use an oral airway, measure from angle of mouth to angle of jaw

DOPE for ETT problems

- Check ETCO2 waveform

- Dislodged
- Occluded
- PTX
- Equipment

Pitfalls

Not recognizing compromise early!

Not thinking to clean out the nose!

Not thinking in terms of axis alignment!

---