Maintaining an airway

Definitions & Key takeaways

The primary purpose of maintaining a patient's airway is to ensure the proper amount of oxygen gets into his lungs, even in extreme situations. Such situations may include respiratory distress or failure, airway obstruction, altered mental status, or in individuals under sedation and general anesthesia (risk for aspiration). Some of the basic procedures include positioning and providing supplemental oxygen via a nasal cannula or masks. When all this fails, advanced airway maneuvers may be needed. These include supraglottic devices, endotracheal intubation, and surgical airway procedures like cricothyrotomy, and tracheostomy.

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Hello. This video covers how to open an airway.
Normally you do everything on this list, but to keep things concise, this video will focus on the steps in blue and a summary meet Fred Fred sleeping.
But as you can tell is snoring loudly, his airway is partially obstructed, elevating his head 10 centimeters from the bed using a pillow or towel and tilting his head backwards slightly opens his airway, a rolled towel or pillow placed under Fred's lower neck or shoulders may also help Freds unconscious and unable to rouse.
Now is the ideal time to use the jaw thrust technique. Place your index and middle finger under the angle of the mandible bone, push Fred's jaw upwards until his lower teeth of the jaw jut in front of the upper teeth for extra effectiveness, tilt his head back as an alternative method.
We have the head tilt, chin lift, rest one hand on Fred's forehead, place your index and middle finger on the underside of Fred's chin, the bone not the soft tissue using your other hand, tilt his head back and push his chin towards the top of his head towards the ceiling.
Using the same hand, open Fred's mouth with your thumb, spinal injury suspected, keep Fred's head in a neutral position as you open his airway using the jaw thrust method.
If that doesn't open his airway, then tilt his head back. Airway is the priority.
Let's ensure it's established. Obese patients need more head elevation than typical.
When we open the airway place blankets, towels, pillows or special ramp device under their head, neck and shoulders. We need to ensure that the ear is in line with the sternum.