Management of difficult airway in penetrating cervical spine injury.
Management of airway in trauma victim with penetrating cervical/thoracic spine injury has always been a challenge to the anaesthesiologist. Stabilisation of spine during airway manipulation, to prevent any further neural damage, is of obvious concern to the anaesthesiologist. Most anaesthesiologists are not exposed to direct laryngoscopy and intubation in lateral position during their training period. Tracheal intubation in the lateral position may be unavoidable in some circumstances. Difficult airway in an uncooperative patient compounds the problem to secure airway in lateral position. We present a 46-year-old alcoholic, hypertensive, morbidly obese person who suffered a sharp instrument (screwdriver) spinal injury with anticipated difficult intubation; the case was managed successfully.
Prasad
Mukesh Kumar
MK
Department of Anaesthesiology, U.F.H.T. Medical College, Rampur Road, Haldwani, Nainital, Uttrakhand, India.
Sinha
Ajay Kumar
AK
Bhadani
Umesh Kumar
UK
Chabra
Balbir
B
Rani
Kanchan
K
Srivastava
Bhavana
B