The American journal of emergency medicine
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Case Reports
Usage of airway ultrasound as an assessment and prediction tool of a difficult airway management.
Airway assessment is important in emergency airway management. A difficult airway can lead to life-threatening complications. A perfect airway assessment tool does not exist and unanticipated difficulty will remain unforeseen. ⋯ Ultrasound predictors of the difficult airway include the inability to visualize the hyoid bone, short hyomental distance ratio, high pretracheal anterior neck thickness and large tongue size. Besides airway assessment, ultrasound can also help to predict endotracheal tube size, confirm intubation and guide emergency airway procedures such as cricothyroidotomy and tracheostomy. Point of care ultrasound of the upper airway can be used in airway assessment to identify distorted airway anatomy, pathological lesions and guide treatment decisions.
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A 24-year-old male was brought to our emergency with complaints of abdominal pain for two days. There was a history of foreign body ingestion five days earlier, details of which he refused to reveal. ⋯ The patient underwent endoscopy for removal of the mobile phone. The case shows the importance of thorough investigation and prompt attempt at endoscopic removal in the event of ingestion of foreign bodies containing batteries.