critical care medicine
How To Insert an Oropharyngeal Airway
Introduction
Oropharyngeal airways are rigid intraoral devices that conform to the tongue and displace it away from the posterior pharyngeal wall, thereby restoring pharyngeal airway patency. (See also Airway Establishment and Control , Pharyngeal airways (both oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal) are a component of preliminary upper airway management for patients with apnea or severe ventilatory failure, which also includes Proper patient positioning Manual jaw maneuvers The goal of all of these methods is to relieve upper airway obstruction caused by a relaxed tongue lying on the posterior pharyngeal wall. 