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Anaesthesiology
Airway Ultrasound
Built from Practical Ultrasound in Anesthesia
What’s inside
5 sections · 65 slides
Overview
- What this deck covers
Sonographic anatomy
Reading the air-tissue interface and the landmarks from mouth to trachea.
- Air-tissue interface and line A
- Reverberation artefact at the air-tissue interface
- Airway surface landmarks, superior to inferior
- Surface landmarks of the neck
- Tongue and oral cavity: probes and views
- Submental scan in the short axis
- Oral cavity in the long axis
- Reading the tongue
- Tongue in the long axis
- Tongue in the short axis
- Hyoid bone
- Thyrohyoid membrane
- Thyrohyoid membrane and epiglottis, transverse and sagittal
- Epiglottis and the smile face sign
- Thyrohyoid membrane and epiglottis on ultrasound
- Epiglottis and the smile face sign
- False vocal cords (vestibular folds)
- False and true vocal cords, transverse and sagittal
- Thyroid cartilage
- True vocal cords
- Laryngeal inlet with abducted vocal cords
- Cricothyroid membrane: the TACA technique
- Thyroid and cricoid A-lines (TACA)
- Cricothyroid membrane in short axis (TACA)
- Two ways to find the cricothyroid membrane
- Cricoid cartilage and trachea
- String of pearls technique (sagittal)
- Trachea in the long axis (string of pearls)
- Cricothyroid membrane in the long axis
- Cricothyroid membrane in the long axis on ultrasound
- Esophagus, muscles, vessels, and soft tissue
Scanning technique
Probe choice, patient position, and functional assessment.
- Probe selection
- Patient positioning
- Functional assessment
Clinical applications
Assessment, tube placement, vocal cords, stridor, and guided procedures.
- Clinical applications of airway POCUS
- Perioperative airway assessment
- Identifying landmarks
- Measuring airway dimensions
- Airway pathology and edema
- Vocal cords and subglottic diameter
- Gastric content and aspiration risk
- Post-surgery evaluation
- Confirming tracheal tube placement
- Direct method of tube confirmation
- Tracheal tube correctly placed
- Esophageal intubation and the double-bubble sign
- Indirect method of tube confirmation
- Vocal cord function
- Stridor and airway obstruction
- Interventional airway procedures
- Probe position for the cricothyroid membrane
- Cricothyroid membrane landmarks on ultrasound
- Needle sliding under the probe
- Needle guidance at the cricothyroid membrane
Limitations and future directions
Where POCUS can mislead, and where the field is heading.
- Limitations of airway POCUS
- Technology and artificial intelligence
- Training and simulation
- Key takeaways
- References
- References (continued)
- References (continued)
- References (continued)
- References (continued)
- Practical Ultrasound in Anesthesia for Critical Care and Pain Management