Fluroscopic assisted airway intubation in temporomandibular joint ankylosis: A novel technique

Airway management is considered one of the most difficult and challenging procedures among the various anesthetic procedures. It becomes tougher when there is a diseased temporomandibular joint (TMJ) due to inadequate mouth opening. In the current scenario there are only a few methods that ensure a safe, uneventful intubation in a TMJ ankylosis patient with a difficult airway. These include techniques ranging from minimally invasive techniques like blind nasal intubation, retrograde intubation using a guide wire, the latest technique of intubating with the help of a fiberoptic laryngoscope and the time tested tracheostomy. All these techniques have got their own disadvantages. So we report a case series of five patients with TMJ ankylosis who underwent fluoroscopic-assisted intubation for airway management. We found that this technique is 100% successful in managing the airway in these patients. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case series detailing this novel technique in the entire English medical literature.