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Evaluation of the Airway

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Principles of Airway Management

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Summary

It is important to conduct a thorough evaluation of the airway before intubation—bearing in mind, of course, that this will not always be possible under emergency circumstances. Whereas a thorough airway evaluation may not allow you to predict the ease or difficulty with which intubation can be performed in every case, it will in about 98‰ of cases. An unanticipated difficult intubation is a medical emergency that, if not dealt with quickly and appropriately, can lead to serious morbidity or even death. Therefore, every effort must be made, in advance, to detect an airway problem, and the best way this can be done is to conduct a thorough airway evaluation.

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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(2003). Evaluation of the Airway. In: Principles of Airway Management. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-22650-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-22650-8_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-95530-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-22650-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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