Airway Management in Children

Airway management in children is usually very straightforward. Unfortunately, when it is not straightforward complications associated with problems encountered while managing the airway can be life-threatening. Airway management can be considered to consist of several different techniques for oxygenating and ventilating an anesthetized patient, namely mask ventilation, supraglottic airway device ventilation, and tracheal intubation. This chapter discusses these techniques and the factors associated with difficulty in performing them. There are anatomic features associated with difficulty in all of these techniques that are caused by syndromes or abnormal airway anatomy in children, although around 20% of difficult intubations are unanticipated. The majority of complications occur when attempting a difficult tracheal intubation. Morbidity and mortality relating to tracheal intubation correlate to the number of attempts at tracheal intubation. Severe hypoxia is estimated to occur in around 9% of children who are difficult to intubate and hypoxic cardiac arrest in nearly 2%, so the key to successful airway management is to focus on maintaining oxygenation and choosing a technique with the best chance of a successful outcome during the first attempt at airway management. This review contains 6 figures, 7 tables, and 41 references.  Keywords: cricothyrotomy, difficult airway, direct laryngoscopy, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, front of neck access, intubation, pediatric, videolaryngoscopy