Airway Management *

Objectives (EM)

1. In a patient for whom initial attempts to control the airway have failed, use alternative techniques to obtain airway control.
2. Anticipate the need for pre-emptive airway control in patients who do not obviously need it on initial survey (e.g., burns, trauma, edema/mass effect, coma, morbid obesity).
3. In a patient who needs airway control, assess the likelihood of a difficult airway (e.g., 3-3-2, Mallampati, LEMON), and prepare according to the level of difficulty identified.
4. In a patient who has particular circumstances that affect airway management, (e.g., trauma, pediatrics, comorbidity) tailor your management appropriately to the circumstances.
5. In a patient who requires rapid sequence induction (RSI) but has contraindications or special indications for the choice of medications, select and use the medications appropriately.
6. In an intubated patient, identify failed airway placement in situations where it is not clinically obvious (e.g., use oxymetry, ETCO2, blood gases).