Experienced airway management in laryngotracheal injuries : series of cases, survey and review of literature

Abstract EN

Definitive airway control of penetrating laryngotra¬cheal injury can be an extremely difficult challenge for the emergency physician.

We report three serious cases of penetrating neck trauma with laryngeal injury that were managed successfully using different techniques of airway control in the Emergency Department (ED) of Hamad General Hospital during the three years from January 2006 through December 2008.

Individualized assessment, identification of type of injury and familia¬rity with airway control techniques and the available options assure timely, safe and proper airway control in such injuries.

Choice of technique in penetrating la¬ryngotracheal injury is multifactorial and depends upon case presentation, physician preference, skill, and clini-cal constraints.

The incidence of neck injury during this period was lower than in other reports; being 0.07 % of total trauma cases, while the incidence of penetrating neck injuries represented 1 7.6 % of total neck injuries with no deaths.

Implications Statement : Familiarity and availability of variant airway manage¬ment techniques and variant surgical interventions in penetrating laryngotracheal injuries, improve outcome and reduce mortality.