title: Pediatric difficult airway management: current devices and techniques.
abstract: The anesthesiologist confronting the difficult pediatric airway is presented with a unique set of challenges. Adult difficult airway management techniques, such as awake or invasive approaches to airway management, often cannot be applied to children because of inadequate cooperation. Consequently, awake intubation in pediatrics is uncommon; most intubations are performed under general anesthesia or deep sedation. From a physiologic perspective, children have higher rates of oxygen consumption, significantly shortening the period of apnea that can be safely tolerated. Normal developmental anatomic differences of the pediatric airway and the presence of craniofacial dysmorphisms, presents additional challenges to tracheal intubation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. fiadjoej@email.chop.edu
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fiadjoe
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stricker
mesh_terms: D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000628:therapy*; D000776:Anesthesiology; D020680:Bronchoscopes; D002648:Child; D004867:Equipment Design; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D017214:Laryngeal Masks; D020704:Laryngoscopes; D007828:Laryngoscopy / Q000379:methods; D010101:Oxygen Consumption