title: Head position for opening the upper airway.
abstract: Inexperienced rescuers may encounter severe problems in an unconscious patient with opening and maintaining a patent upper airway. Designing a ventilating device that could indicate how to open an upper airway correctly may be beneficial. The heads of 102 volunteers were randomly placed in different head positions by one investigator. A pocket mask was then pressed gently on the volunteer's face followed by measurement of the head position angles. Mean (SD) flexion was - 4 degrees (8 degrees) (95% CI - 5.9 to - 2.9); the mean neutral position was 21 degrees (6 degrees) (95% CI, 19.9 to 22.3); extension was 42 degrees (6 degrees) (95% CI 40.8 to 43.0 degrees) and differed significantly between each position (p < 0.001). The flexion and neutral position angles were significantly greater in men than in women: - 2 (7 degrees) vs. -8 (7 degrees) and 22 (7 degrees) vs 20 (5 degrees); p < 0.001 and p = 0.03, respectively. Maximum extension of the head in both supine men and women was 42 degrees, which could be utilised to optimise assisted ventilation of an unprotected upper airway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. peter.paal@i-med.ac.at
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paal
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Goedecke
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brugger
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Niederklapfer
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wenzel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000628:therapy*; D001824:Body Constitution; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008397:Masks; D008875:Middle Aged; D009333:Neck / Q000502:physiology; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D016683:Supine Position