Airway trauma

TY - JOUR

T1 - Airway trauma

AU - Morrison, Kirsty

AU - Richardson, Euan

AU - Crawley, Simon

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025

PY - 2025/12/1

Y1 - 2025/12/1

N2 - Airway trauma can be a life-threatening condition which poses significant challenges to clinicians, who may be presented with an anatomically, pathologically, physiologically and situationally difficult airway all within the same patient. Airway trauma is a highly variable condition, with its subsequent clinical management being influenced by the cause (such as blunt or penetrating trauma), the anatomical site of injury, as well as the presence of other life-threatening non-airway injuries in the polytrauma injured patient. The trauma team should comprise senior clinical decision-makers and they must rapidly identify the need for additional input from specialities such as ENT or maxillofacial surgery. Early airway intervention is necessary when airway compromise is present and the multidisciplinary team must be vigilant for this eventuality, since rapid deterioration can occur. A structured approach to patients’ resuscitation, injury assessment and investigation(s) should be followed, in order to guide the most appropriate strategy for securing the airway. This should take into consideration the time-critical nature of injuries, the degree of patient cooperation (influencing the utility of awake airway management techniques) as well as the location/environment, provision of equipment and availability of appropriately trained personnel.

AB - Airway trauma can be a life-threatening condition which poses significant challenges to clinicians, who may be presented with an anatomically, pathologically, physiologically and situationally difficult airway all within the same patient. Airway trauma is a highly variable condition, with its subsequent clinical management being influenced by the cause (such as blunt or penetrating trauma), the anatomical site of injury, as well as the presence of other life-threatening non-airway injuries in the polytrauma injured patient. The trauma team should comprise senior clinical decision-makers and they must rapidly identify the need for additional input from specialities such as ENT or maxillofacial surgery. Early airway intervention is necessary when airway compromise is present and the multidisciplinary team must be vigilant for this eventuality, since rapid deterioration can occur. A structured approach to patients’ resuscitation, injury assessment and investigation(s) should be followed, in order to guide the most appropriate strategy for securing the airway. This should take into consideration the time-critical nature of injuries, the degree of patient cooperation (influencing the utility of awake airway management techniques) as well as the location/environment, provision of equipment and availability of appropriately trained personnel.

KW - Airway

KW - airway strategy

KW - difficult airway management

KW - trauma

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023438381

U2 - 10.1016/j.mpaic.2025.10.016

DO - 10.1016/j.mpaic.2025.10.016

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:105023438381

SN - 1472-0299

VL - 26

SP - 847

EP - 850

JO - Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine

JF - Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine

IS - 12

ER -