critical care medicine
Surgical Airway
Introduction
If the upper airway is obstructed because of a foreign body or massive facial trauma or if ventilation cannot be accomplished by other means, surgical entry into the trachea is required. Historically, a surgical airway was also the response to failed intubation. However, surgical airways require on average about 100 seconds from initial incision to ventilation. Laryngeal Mask Airways (LMA) (LMAs) and other supraglottic airways provide a faster means of rescue ventilation; because foreign body obstruction and (for an LMA) massive facial trauma are only rare contraindications to their use, very few patients require an emergency surgical airway. (See also Overview of Respiratory Arrest , 