Tag: airway management
- How To Assess Breathing In Conscious Patients ()
Conscious patients are easier to determine airway and breathing status When a patient is conscious and experiencing respiratory distress, they usually just tell anyone that will listen that they can’t breath. Nonetheless, clues abound for the respiratory distress patient: Rapid respiratory rate The patient lungs make sounds as they breathe The patient is unable to […]
- Airway Risk Management In Responsive Patients Or Patients With A Clear Airway ()
Most EMS patients are conscious and speaking with EMS. Sometimes, the patient will not be alert or even unconscious, necessitating the ambulance crew to open the airway and determine if the airway is clear. In either case the airway is clear, but does that mean that the airway will remain clear during transport? Unconscious patients […]
- Suctioning ()
Airway suctioning refers to the collective measures that are used for clearing the airway of a patient. It involves suctioning, clearing secretions, and maintaining the patency of the airway. It is of particular importance for patients with mechanical ventilators, endotracheal tube (ET) intubations, tracheostomies, or other airway adjuncts. Clearance of airway secretions is a normal […]
- Relief of Foreign Body Airway Obstructions In Conscious Patients ()
Conscious FBAO aka ‘Choking’ When a person is choking, every muscle in their body is working to remove the obstruction. More times than not, the person will be successful and EMS is not needed. If EMS arrives to the patient while choking is still a problem, EMS can help the patient remove the obstruction. Assisting […]
- Mechanical Airway Devices – NPA ()
Nasopharyngeal Airway Indications These devices are used by emergency care professionals in situations where an artificial form of airway maintenance is necessary, but tracheal intubation is impossible, inadvisable, or outside the practitioner’s scope of practice. An NPA is often used in conscious patients where an oropharyngeal airway would trigger the gag reflex. Contraindications They are […]
- Mechanical Airway Devices – OPA ()
Oropharyngeal Airway Indications An oropharyngeal airway (oral airway, OPA) is an airway adjunct used to maintain or open the airway by stopping the tongue from covering the epiglottis. In this position, the tongue may prevent an individual from breathing. This sometimes happens when a person becomes unconscious because the muscles in the jaw relax causing […]
- Techniques For Opening An Airway On An Unconscious Patient ()
Patients who are not alert and not talking to you may have an obstructed airway. When your patient is alert and speaking to you, checking the airway is unnecessary (it is impossible to speak through an obstructed airway). When the patient is not alert (and definitely not speaking), you have to assess the airway to […]
- Airway Assessment ()
When the patient is alert and talking to you, the airway is clear. When the patient is not alert and is not speaking to you, the airway must be assessed In a patient who is unresponsive or not alert, the cause of the altered mental status could be an airway obstruction of some sort, so […]
- Anatomy of The Lower Airway ()
The lower respiratory tract or lower airway consists of the trachea, bronchi (primary, secondary and tertiary), bronchioles (including terminal and respiratory), and lungs (including alveoli). It also sometimes includes the larynx. The lower respiratory tract is also called the respiratory tree or tracheobronchial tree, to describe the branching structure of airways supplying air to the […]
- Anatomy of Upper Airway ()
The pharynx is the mucous membrane-lined portion of the airway between the base of the skull and the esophagus and is subdivided as follows: Nasopharynx, also known as the rhino-pharynx, post-nasal space, is the muscular tube from the nares, including the posterior nasal cavity, divided from the oropharynx by the palate and lining the skull base […]