title: Fluroscopic assisted airway intubation in temporomandibular joint ankylosis: A novel technique.
abstract: Airway management is considered one of the most difficult and challenging procedures among the various anesthetic procedures. It becomes tougher when there is a diseased temporomandibular joint (TMJ) due to inadequate mouth opening. In the current scenario there are only a few methods that ensure a safe, uneventful intubation in a TMJ ankylosis patient with a difficult airway. These include techniques ranging from minimally invasive techniques like blind nasal intubation, retrograde intubation using a guide wire, the latest technique of intubating with the help of a fiberoptic laryngoscope and the time tested tracheostomy. All these techniques have got their own disadvantages. So we report a case series of five patients with TMJ ankylosis who underwent fluoroscopic-assisted intubation for airway management. We found that this technique is 100% successful in managing the airway in these patients. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case series detailing this novel technique in the entire English medical literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, MAJ Hospital, Edapally, Kochi, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Ibin
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Varughese
authors.forename: Parekkara I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Varughese
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Soman
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mathew