title: An easily made, low-cost phantom for ultrasound airway exam training and assessment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent manuscripts have described the use of ultrasound imaging to evaluate airway structures. Ultrasound training tools are necessary for practitioners to become proficient at obtaining and interpreting images. Few training tools exist and those that do can often times be expensive and rendered useless with repeated needle passes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We utilised inexpensive and easy to obtain materials to create a gel phantom model for ultrasound-guided airway examination training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following creation of the gel phantom model, images were successfully obtained of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages, cricothyroid membrane and tracheal rings in both the sagittal transverse planes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The gel phantom model mimics human airway anatomy and may be used for ultrasound-guided airway assessment and intervention training. This may have important safety implications as ultrasound imaging is increasingly used for airway assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 600 Highland Avenue, B6/319 CSC, Madison, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Kristopher M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: Jagan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramamoorthy
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Galgon
keywords: Airway imaging; airway management; ultrasonography