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Chapter 11 - Prevention and management of airway fires

from Section 1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

By
D. John Doyle
Edited by
Basem Abdelmalak  and
John Doyle
Basem Abdelmalak
Affiliation:
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
John Doyle
Affiliation:
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
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Summary

An airway fire is potentially deadly complication that may occur during tracheotomy surgery, during laser surgery and with a number of other procedures. This chapter discusses the prevention and management of airway fires. The anesthesiologist should keep the administered oxygen levels to the minimum needed when a significant potential for an airway fire is present. In general, cases of airway fire call for immediate removal of the endotracheal tube (ETT) and flooding of the field with saline. While this is a reasonable rule of thumb, it should also be noted that there are occasional patients where removal of the ETT would in all likelihood result in irreversible loss of the airway. Some authors have suggested that flooding the surgical site with carbon dioxide will help prevent airway fires during open tracheostomy using cautery.

Keywords

oxygenationtracheal intubationdifficult airway managementotolaryngologyfiberoptic intubationmask ventilation
Type
Chapter
Information
Anesthesia for Otolaryngologic Surgery , pp. 105 - 112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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