As someone who provides air medical transport, you’re probably aware of how scary and challenging it can be to provide airway management. The task is especially daunting when you’re dealing with babies and children. Their smaller and delicate bodies make it extremely difficult for medical care providers to manage their airways effectively.
Important Facts and Tips about Pediatric Airway Management for Air Medical Transport Providers
Even when you’re a trained professional and have the necessary skills to carry out airway management, you may still make a mistake. This could be because of poor assessment, poor decision-making, fixation error, poor planning, or delayed fibreoptic incubation. Here are some useful facts you could make use of to help you carry out excellent pediatric airway management:
- Truly difficult laryngoscopy occurs rarely but the main issue is that you can’t intubate when the patient is awake. This can make your job especially daunting if the patient requires immediate airway management.
- In children, difficult laryngoscopy normally occurs if the child is younger than a year old with low BMI. It can also occur due to faciomaxillary and cardiac surgery, so it would be crucial for respiratory medical care providers to be aware of such incidences.
- In case of infants who are chubbier than normal, it may be tricky to determine the right IV access location during a gas induction. If it’s difficult to find IV access or to administer anesthetic for such infants, it would be ideal to have two experienced hands.
- Some infants may even experience laryngospasm, which is a common cause of hypoxia. It can occur due to various factors including secretions or blood in the airway, ENT and airway surgery, multiple attempts at airway instrumentation, and inexperienced anesthetist. It’s important for air medical transport providers to be aware of such incidents and avoid irritant volatiles.
