Traumatic complications of airway management

Safe and effective airway management techniques have become a hallmark of modern anesthesiology practice, but even such overwhelmingly successful and life-saving practices come with a cost. This cost is morbidity and mortality secondary to the techniques themselves. Closed claims analysis has shown that adverse outcomes secondary to respiratory events constitute the single largest source of injury to patients (75%). Airway management complications are a significant subset of these outcomes. Difficult intubation was shown to be a factor in only slightly more that one third (38%) of these claims. Six percent of closed claims were for airway trauma. These data indicate that injury frequently occurs without initial difficulty in management of the airway, may occur throughout the perioperative period, and can be unexpected when it occurs. Thorough knowledge of the mechanisms of airway injury associated with different airway management techniques may allow for better patient outcomes. This chapter reviews complications of airway management involving the placement of endotracheal tubes. In addition, because laryngeal mask airways (LMAs) have gained increasing prominence in airway management use in the past 10 years, complications relating to their use will also be reviewed.