HARD DECISIONS IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Intensivecareunitkapak

DIFFICULT CASES WITH DIFFICULT AIRWAY

Ahmet İlker Keskin

Ankara City Hospital, Department of Intensive Care, Ankara, Türkiye

Keskin Aİ. Difficult Cases with Difficult Airway. In: Turan S, editor. Hard Decisions in Intensive Care Unit. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2025. p.529-540.

ABSTRACT

Difficult airway management in intensive care patients is a priority issue for all intensive care specialists. As a result of the practices and studies carried out over the past years, it has led us to better understand how important the approach to the intensive care patient is. Especially when evaluated within the scope of difficult cases, difficult airways become even more important. The experiences gained from the past to the present have led to the development of algorithms for difficult airway management. In this section, difficult airway definitions are discussed and difficult airway management is discussed in detail in the light of algorithms. Clinical practice begins with predicting the difficult airway. For difficult airway management, the concepts of difficult face mask ventilation, difficult laryngoscopy, difficult supraglottic airway use, difficult or unsuccessful tracheal intubation, difficult or failed invasive airway should be understood. Anatomically difficult airways and physiologically difficult airways should be foreseen and the importance of trying to provide the airway based on the algorithms developed in this regard is emphasized.

Keywords: Intubation; Rapid sequence induction and intubation; Airway management; Airway obstruction; Sleep apnea; Obstructive

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