A new low-cost method for difficult airway management in non-missile-penetrating cervical spine injury

Accessing and maintaining the airway in penetrating cervical spine injury is a challenge for anaesthetists globally. This is more so in resource-poor settings, where advanced techniques for intubation in difficult airway situations are unavailable. We describe a new, low-cost, easily adaptable method of managing the airway used in a middle-aged man who sustained screw driver injury to the cervical spine with C4 Brown-Séquard syndrome. The deployment of readily available and cheap materials led to successful anaesthesia management of the patient.