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154]

Review Article

Airway management in trauma

Address for correspondence:
Dr. Rashid Khan,
PO BOX 96,
Al Harthy Complex, Oman.
E-mail: seeras_alig@rediffmail.
com

Access this article online

Website: www.ijaweb.org
DOI: 10.4103/0019-5049.89870
Quick response code

Rashid M Khan, Pradeep K Sharma1, Naresh Kaul

Department of Anesthesia and ICU, National Trauma Centre, 1Department of Anesthesia, Sultan Qaboos
University Hospital, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACT
Trauma has assumed epidemic proportion. 10% of global road accident deaths occur in India.
Hypoxia and airway mismanagement are known to contribute up to 34% of pre-hospital deaths
in these patients. A high degree of suspicion for actual or impending airway obstruction should
be assumed in all trauma patients. Objective signs of airway compromise include agitation,
obtundation, cyanosis, abnormal breath sound and deviated trachea. If time permits, one should
carry out a brief airway assessment prior to undertaking definitive airway management in these
patients. Simple techniques for establishing and maintaining airway patency include jaw thrust
maneuver and/or use of oro- and nas-opharyngeal airways. All attempts must be made to perform
definitive airway management whenever airway is compromised that is not amenable to simple
strategies. The selection of airway device and route- oral or -nasal, for tracheal intubation should
be based on nature of patient injury, experience and skill level.

Key words: Airway algorithms, airway management, airway trauma

INTRODUCTION
The global status report on road safety published in
May, 2011 by world health organization noted that
India had the maximum (125,000) deaths due to
trauma on roads. This is 10% of global road accident
death. The report also adds that at least 2.2 millions
sustain serious injuries each year.[1] Unfortunately, a
majority of trauma survivors are either confined to bed
or wheel chair for the rest of their lives due to either
brain or spinal injury.[2]
The tragedy of India is that 78% of the victims are men
in the age group of 20 to 44 years, causing significant
impact on productivity.[3]
Why do these trauma victims die? This is predominantly
due to hypoxia and airway mismanagement which are
known to contribute up to 34% of pre-hospital deaths
in these patients.[4]
Several studies have shown that 7 to 28% of patients
with trauma require definitive airway management in
the form of either endotracheal intubation (ETI) or a
surgical airway.[5-7]

Although emergency definitive airway management

is known to be associated with complications (1),
avoiding it results in unacceptably high morbidity and
mortality.[8,9]
The best strategy to salvage patients with trauma is to
provide them with immediate trauma care, including
airway management in the pre-hospital setting and
advance trauma care within the first hour of trauma or
the so-called Golden Hour.[2]
The aim of this article is to review the more recent
theoretic and practical information that pertains to
airway management in victims of trauma. This shall
include identifying causes of difficulties in airway
management, prediction of airway difficulties and the
best strategies in terms of airway devices, techniques
or maneuvers that may be useful in the management
of airway in the trauma setting.

CAUSES OF AIRWAY MISMANAGEMENT

Airway mismanagement in trauma victims may be
attributed to any one or combination of the following
causes:[10]

How to cite this article: Khan RM, Sharma PK, Kaul N. Airway management in trauma. Indian J Anaesth 2011;55:463-9.
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Khan, et al.: Airway management in trauma

1. Failure to recognise the inadequate airway in the

trauma victim.
2. Failure to establish a clear airway with or without
an airway device.
3. Failure to recognise that the airway device that has
been employed is incorrectly placed.
4. Displacement of a previously established airway.
5. Failure to recognise the need for ventilation, and
lastly.
6. Aspiration of gastric contents.
An inadequate airway would lead to asphyxia that
may progress to cerebral hypoxia, brain damage and
finally death.
What are the locations at which airway mismanagement
occurs in these trauma patients? The answer to this
includes airway mismanagement can occur at the
accident site or the trauma centre. Causes of airway
mismanagement at the accident site include the
following:
1.
Unfavourable
conditions
(e.g.,
darkness,
inadequate space, limited access to the patients
airway).
2. Poor patient positioning who may be lying on the
road, cramped smashed cars and trains besides
other such unusual locations.
3. Unknown assisting personnel with different levels
of airway training.
Causes of airway difficulties leading to airway
mismanagement at the trauma centre may include the
following:
1. Oropharyngeal or pulmonary haemorrhage and/or
facial trauma obscuring patient airway details.
2. An immobilised cervical spine such as in cervical
collar or Halo frame.
3. A possible full stomach and the assistant applying
faulty cricoid pressure (Sellicks maneuver).
4. An uncertain volume status putting a dilemma on
the use of pharmacological adjuncts.
5. Hypoxaemia putting stress on the operator.
6. An uncooperative or combative patient.
All or some of these factors, as well as poor airway
skills of the operator themselves, result in a difficulty
in managing the airway in 7 to 10% of trauma patients.
To avoid airway mismanagement, it is essential that
the physician or paramedic attending to the patient
is well trained, remains calm and does not panic.
One should strictly follow the A, B, C. rules of
Advanced Trauma Life Support guidelines. [10]
464

PREDICTION OF INADEQUATE AIRWAY IN PATIENT

OF TRAUMA
Potential trauma patients who can have inadequacy of
airway include patients with:[10]
1. Altered consciousness secondary to head injury,
drugs or alcohol.
2. Direct trauma to airway (faciomaxillary, neck,
larynx and throat).
3. Severely wounded patients having profound
bleeding or are comatose.
4. Respiratory failure secondary to blast or
inhalational injury, or exposure to chemical
agents.
Not all these patients will have a compromised airway.
The following steps shall help to identify the obstructed
airway of some of these potential patients:[10]
1. Look: Look for obtundation, agitation, cyanosis,
retraction and/or use of accessory muscles of
respiration, and asymmetrical rise and fall of
chest.
2. Listen: Listen to patient attempting to talk
but failing to do so, abnormal breath sounds
associated with snoring, gurgling, stridor and
crackles. Asymmetrical breath sounds over both
hemithoracies and tachypnea also suggest an
inadequate airway.
3. Feel: Feel for a deviated trachea and/or
subcutaneous emphysema.
Patients with any or combination of the above should
be presumed to have an inadequate obstructed airway
needing appropriate management. All patients of
trauma should be suspected to have an altered or
compromised airway till ruled out. They should
continue to receive supplemental oxygen and have
cervical immobilisation done using manual-inline stabilisation during examination and airway
management.
While trying to identify an inadequate airway, take
the opportunity to take a SAMPLE history if patients
condition permits. This includes the following:
S Signs/symptoms
A Allergies
M Medications, if any
P Past medical history
L Last meal, and
E Events prior to injury.
The 8th edition advanced trauma life support (ATLS)
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Khan, et al.: Airway management in trauma

guidelines strongly suggest that if the patient is well

oxygenated and is reasonably stable (i.e., does not need
to be intubated in the next 2 to 3 minutes), a methodical
stepwise plan to assess for difficult airway should be
made. For ease of remembrance, one is encouraged to
use the following mnemonic for assessing the difficult
airway in these patients: LEMON and BONES.
LEMON[10,11] for assessing difficult intubation:
L Look externally

For massive facial or

neck trauma, receding
mandible, short neck
(<3 finger breadth from
sternal notch to thyroid
cartilage).
E Evaluate 3-3-2 rule
Mouth
opening,
submandibular
space
and distance between
the thyroid notch and
the chin of less than 3, 3
and 2 fingers respectively
suggests
difficult
intubation.
M Mallampati grade
2 should alert the
operator
for
difficult
laryngoscopy and tracheal
intubation.
O Obstruction
Obstruction
to
the
airway may be fixed or
rapidly changing as due
to inhalation injury or
faciomaxillary trauma.
N Neck mobility
This may be fixed as in
patients with cervical
collar or Halo frame.
Difficult mask ventilation may be anticipated if the
patient has 2 or > of the following parameters in the
mnemonic.
BONES
B Beard
O Obesity (BMI>26kg/m2)
N No teeth
E Elderly (age >55 years)
S Snorer.
Once it has been identified that the patient has an
inadequate airway, one can adopt:
1. Simple airway strategy
2. Definitive airway strategy (ETI or surgical
airway), or
Indian Journal of Anaesthesia | Vol.55| Issue 5 | Sep-Oct 2011

3. Semi-definitive airway strategy for making the

airway patent as per existing situation.
However, before initiating any of the airway
maintenance strategies, it is essential to clear any
blood clot and mucous from the oral cavity and nose.
Remove foreign bodies such as broken dentures or
avulsed teeth. One should also control the tongue
position in case of symphyseal bilateral fracture of the
mandible. Words of caution when suctioning the oral
cavity: never suction further than you can see, always
suction on the way out, never suction for longer than
15 seconds and always oxygenate the patient before
and after suctioning.

SIMPLE AIRWAY STRATEGY

This includes Head tilt and Chin lift (avoid in
patients with cervical trauma)/jaw thrust or the use
of basic adjuncts such as oropharyngeal airway in
unresponsive patients without gag reflex, and/or
nasopharyngeal airway in patients with more active
reflexes but without evidence of fracture of base of
skull.

DEFINITIVE AIRWAY STRATEGY

This includes either ETI or a surgical airway.
Indications for definitive airway strategy include the
following:[10]
1. Presence of apnoea.
2. Need for airway protection form aspiration:
vomitus, bleeding.
3. Unconsciousness: Glasgow Coma Scale <8.
4. Severe faciomaxillary fractures.
5. Risk for obstruction: neck haematoma, laryngeal/
tracheal injury.
6. Impending or potential airway compromise:
inhalation injury.
7. Inability to maintain SpO2> 90% by facemask
oxygenation.
Options for achieving ETI may include any one of
the following airway aids depending on the situation,
device availability and presence of operator with
necessary expertise.
1. Direct laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation.
2. Video laryngoscopy and intubation.
3. Fibreoptic tracheal intubation.
4. Lightwand-guided tracheal intubation.
5.
Intubating
LMA/C-Trach-aided
tracheal
intubation.
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Khan, et al.: Airway management in trauma

6. Bullard-, UpsherScope- or WuScope-aided

intubation.
7. Retrograde technique of tracheal intubation.
8. Blind nasal intubation.
Direct rigid laryngoscopy using a straight or a curved
blade laryngoscope is still the most successful aid
in performing ETI in patients with trauma. This is
because we have vast experience with its daily use;
vision is not hampered in the presence of blood/
secretion/vomitus, and it is robust enough while
dealing with an uncooperative/combative patient. It
has been erroneously believed that direct conventional
laryngoscopy is associated with significant movement
of the cervical spine. Cadaveric and studies done
on live trauma patients have failed to support this
assumption. Today, there is enough evidence that a
gentle direct laryngoscopy with MILS is not associated
with any aggravation of spinal cord injury.[12,13]
Video
laryngoscopes
such
as
GlideScope
(Verathon, Bothell, Washington), TruviewPCD
(Truphatek, Israel), McGrathAircraft Medical Ltd.,
Edinburgh, UK) and others give the ability to view the
images on a monitor, thereby providing immediate
feedback to an assistant applying external laryngeal
manipulation.[14] In addition, videolaryngoscopic
techniques also have a great potential for teaching the
art of airway management in trauma patients. But these
techniques have their share of disadvantages such as
blurring of view in presence of blood and secretions
besides being expensive.
Fibre optic tracheal intubation is considered to be
the preferred method for intubating a patient with an
unstable cervical spine. Least cervical spine movement
is associated with fibreoptic tracheal intubation.[15] In
the emergency department, the success rate of this
airway aid ranges between 50 and 90%.[16-18] However,
one should remember that it is most likely to fail in
the presence of blood, secretion and vomitus or in an
uncooperative, combative patient.
Lightwand (Trachlight: Laerdal Medical Corp.,
Wappingers Falls, New York) is a safe, effective, rapid
and inexpensive intubating device. Lightwand tracheal
intubation is a suitable airway aid in trauma patients
where intubation is to be done in the neutral position
or with minimal head extension. Its second major
advantage is that its success is not significantly impacted
by the presence of blood and secretion. However,
since this method of intubation is a blind approach,
466

it should be avoided in patients with expanding

neck masses or laryngopharyngeal trauma.[14]
Intubating LMA/C-Trach-aided tracheal intubation
has been used in trauma patients for achieving
tracheal intubation. They require minimal head and
neck movement while placing them into the patients
oropharynx and facilitate ETI as the patient is being
simultaneously ventilated. However, Brimacombe
et al. have demonstrated that its use may be associated
with significant displacement of the unstable cervical
vertebra.[15] Intubating laryngeal mask airway (LMA)
has been noted to cause greater cervical vertebra
displacement as compared with conventional
orotracheal intubation.[19] Hence, one should be
cautious in its use in patients with cervical injury.
Bullardlaryngoscope (Circon Corp., Stamford,
Connecticut), UpsherScope (Mercury Medical,
Clearwater, Florida) or WuScope (Achi Corp., San Jose,
California)-aided tracheal intubation have the
advantage of conventional fibreoptic scope. In addition,
they are more robust and need less intensive training.[20]
Because of their anatomically curved shape, they
are especially suited for patients with cervical spine
injury as no head and neck movement is necessary for
their use. Cricoid pressure and inline stabilisation of
the head and neck does not seem to interfere with the
utility of Bullard scope.[21] Like any other fibreoptic
laryngoscopes, these are handicapped by their inability
to aid visualisation of the larynx in the presence of
blood, vomitus or secretions. However, WuScope
is partly protected from this handicap as its optical
system is relatively protected in its tubular blade.[14]
Blind nasotracheal intubation, though still a part of
ATLS,[10] has very few indications in trauma patients.
One such indication may be limited mouth opening as
all other devices detailed above require a mouth opening
of at least 2cm for orotracheal intubation. In such
situation, nasotracheal intubation may be attempted
if surgical airway is not immediately indicated. One
should remember that it should be undertaken only by
expert personnel. Contraindications to nasotracheal
intubation are significant midface trauma and
coagulopathy.[14]
Once tracheal intubation has been achieved, it is
essential to confirm correct tracheal tube placement.
This is done by either visualising the tracheal tube
pass through the vocal cords or using other methods
such as watching the chest move and auscultating
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Khan, et al.: Airway management in trauma

5 points on the patients chest; CO2 detector and a

chest X-ray. Capnography (continuous CO2 detection
with a waveform) is the recommended method
now. Only when it is not available, capnometry
(single measurement of CO2) should be resorted.
Once correctly placed, do not forget to secure the
endotracheal tube lest it gets displaced.
Gum elastic bougie is an underutilised airway aid in the
setting of trauma airway management. Its advantage
lies not only in making a difficult intubation possible
when only a portion of laryngeal inlet or epiglottis
alone is visualised, but its use is also not affected by
the presence of blood and secretion.[10,22,23] All trauma
care operators should be satisfied with a Cormack
and Lehanes class 2 or 3 view and use a bougie to
aid tracheal intubation rather than use force to obtain
class 1 view and aggravate cervical injury.
Surgical airway should be resorted when there is severe
glottis oedema and/or oropharyngeal haemorrhage,
fracture of the larynx and when endotracheal tube
fails to be passed through the vocal cords. 1% of
trauma patients requiring intubation require a
surgical airway.[24] Surgical airway techniques include
cricothyrotomy.[10] Cricothyrotomy can be performed
using the following three techniques:
A. A needle using a 12-14 gauge cannula. The cannula,
after withdrawing the needle, is connected to 4050 psi source delivering oxygen at 15l/minute.
Intermittent insufflation, 1 second on and 4 second
off, can provide satisfactory jet insufflation.
B. A needle airway procedure as above, but where
the ventilation is provided by low pressure
ventilation.
C. Surgical Airway where a cuffed tube is inserted
into the trachea through the cricothyroid
membrane and ventilation is performed through a
self-inflating bag or other ventilating technique.
Percutaneous tracheostomy (PCT) is not recommended
in the trauma setting.[10] This is essentially because
for performing PCT, one needs to hyperextend the
patients neck. This can have disastrous consequences
if the patient has a cervical injury. This procedure can
be dangerous and is time-consuming and hence not
advocated.

management of trauma patients in the 8th edition of

ATLS.[10] A simplified approach to definitive airway
management in trauma patients in presented in
Figure 1. The three devices which are recommended
include LMA, Combitube and laryngeal tube (LT).
Laryngeal mask airway
The LMA is considered a useful airway device in
any patient where definitive airway could not be
established. However, LMA is not considered a
definitive airway device. ATLS strongly recommends
that physicians should plan for a definitive airway
when patient with this device arrives in the emergency
department. It has been recognised that for proper
placement of LMA, appropriate training is essential.
Laryngeal tube
The LT is supraglottic airway device with capabilities
similar to LMA. As with the LMA, LT is not considered
a definitive airway device. Like the LMA, LT is placed
without direct visualisation of the glottis and does not
require significant manipulation of the head and neck.
Unlike the combitube and ETI, LT offers improved
insertion success and lesser placement time.[25]
Combitube
It is still recommended as a semi-definitive airway
device to be used in trauma patients where facilities
for definitive airway do not exist or have failed. It is
a time purchase device and all attempts should be
made to switch over to a definitive airway device at
the earliest. Unlike the LT, it may rarely enter into the
trachea. In such circumstances, an immediate switch
over to the other proximal lumen should be done for
initiating correct ventilation.
Need for intubation
Manual in-line-stabilisation
Pre-oxygenation
Consider rapid sequence intubation
Successful tracheal intubation
Yes

No

Valve mask ventilation

Confirm placement, fix tracheal tube

(Auscultation, CO2 detector, CXR)

Repeat intubation
(Senior laryngoscopist, change blade, optimal position, OELM)

Successful

Unsuccessful
LMA or TTJV as temporary airway

Cricothyrotomy

Successful

SEMI-DEFINITIVE AIRWAY STRATEGY

Cricothyrotomy and place cuffed tracheal tube

The role of semi-definitive devices (supraglottic

airway devices) has been clearly defined in the
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Figure 1: Simplified approach to definitive airway management in

trauma patients
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Khan, et al.: Airway management in trauma

Miscellaneous issues during the airway management

of trauma patient. These issues include the following:
role of cricoid pressure and cervical immobilisation,
dealing with a combative patient and dilemma of
awake tracheal intubation.
Cricoid pressure, the Sellicks maneuver, is not
mentioned in the 8th edition of ATLS course manual
except as a single line under rapid sequence intubation.[14]
Although it has been used to prevent regurgitation of
gastric contents, it is known to distort the laryngeal
view and displace unstable cervical spine. If still
utilised, cricoid pressure should be reduced or
altogether removed, if felt that it is hampering tracheal
intubation or placement of supraglottic device.
Cervical immobilisation
In a non-randomised comparative evaluation of three
techniques of cervical spine immobilisation (rigid
cervical collar, tape across forehead with sandbags
on either side of the neck and manual-in-linestabilisation) on laryngoscopic view of the glottis during
laryngoscopy, Heath[26] noted poor laryngoscopic view
(grade 3 or 4 of Cormack and Lehanes) in 64% patients
when cervical immobilisation was attempted using
rigid collar or tape across forehead as compared with
only 22% when using MILS. Hence, MILS should be the
favoured technique of cervical spine immobilisation
in patient with suspected neck trauma.
Dealing with a combative patient
Patients with trauma may be combative as a
result of intoxication (alcohol or drugs), but other
equally important factors are because they are
hypoxic, hypercarbic, head injured, frightened,
disoriented or are in severe pain. One should also
remember that there may be underlying medical
condition such as hypoglycaemia contributing to
their combative behaviour.[27] Addressing all these
contributing factors should go side by side to airway
management. Physical and chemical restraint during
airway management should be restricted to patients
in whom the above factors have been either ruled
out or have been adequately attended. Physical
restraint may be achieved by placing the patient
on a long spine board with a cervical collar, tape
and sandbags. However, if the patient continues
to struggle, he can potentially injure his spine and
warrants further action. In the haemodynamically
stable patient, haloperidol, 5mg, can be given in
repeated doses intravenously every 5 minutes with
observation for effect.[28]
468

Awake tracheal intubation

A commonly held belief in the 1970s and 1980s
was that definitive airway management in an awake
patient protects the injured cervical spine as the
non-paralysed neck muscle tone acts as a splint.
There is no evidence to support this assumption.[27]
In fact, such patients can significantly aggravate
their cervical injury due to coughing, bucking,
gagging or struggling. In the National Emergency
Airway Registry, a multicentre study of more than
15,000 emergency intubations, a phase-two data
analysis of trauma intubations showed that 80% of
patients underwent rapid sequence induction and
intubation using muscle relaxant without cervical
damage.[29]
Rapid sequence intubation
Rapid sequence induction and tracheal intubation
under anaesthetic, sedative and neuromuscular
blocking drug is still considered hazardous.[10]
However, if the situation justifies the risk of
administering these drugs, one should assure that
skilled personnel are available to perform tracheal
intubation.
Following steps should be strictly adhered to while
carrying out rapid sequence intubation:
1. Ensure the presence of a person with skills to
perform surgical airway in the event of failed
intubation.
2. Ensure that suction and device to ventilate the
patient is readily available.
3. Pre-oxygenate with 100% oxygen and apply
cricoid pressure (Sellicks maneuver).
4. Administer etomidate 0.3mg/kg or 20mg and
then administer 1-2mg/kg succinylcholine
intravenously. Avoid succinylcholine in
patients with severe crush injuries, major
thermal and electrical burns, pre-existing
chronic renal failure, chronic paralysis
and chronic neuromuscular disease as it
has the potential for severe hyperkalaemia.
Thiopental and sedative drugs (midazolam and
diazepam) should be avoided in patients with
hypovolaemia.
5. Perform intubation after the patient relaxes.
6. Inflate the cuff of the endotracheal tube and
confirm correct tracheal tube placement by
auscultation and presence of CO2 in exhaled air.
7. Release cricoid pressure.
8. Ventilate the patient.
9. Secure the tracheal tube firmly.
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Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: None declared

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