The airway in children

Before we started to think about how to recognise a problematic airway, it is useful to think about the airway of a child, and how this differs from adults.

This page has a nice summary. It's written for anaesthetists so has more information than we'll need to know (hopefully!).There's a very good summary here and here, with some practical suggestions.

LITFL has not let us down, and they also have an excellent summary together with some management tips. e-LfH has a module about stridor.

There is a very thorough powerpoint presentation all about the difficult airway in children here. The pictures are well placed, and makes you realise that children really aren't just little adults.

Basically, children are much more likely to have difficult airways, and have a high anterior larynx. There are lots of pictures that demonstrate these differences really well:



http://www.ceu-emt.com/images/childadultupperair.gif

This is a really good overview, with every difference labelled on a very clear picture.

http://www.revcolanest.com.co/en/la-via-aerea-pediatrica-algunos/articulo/90149961/


There is a nice little case based e-learning module on doctors.net here:
http://www.doctors.net.uk/ecme/wfrmNewIntro.aspx?moduleid=1562
It is a useful reminder of some of the common, and not so common, airway problems in children. 

Ventilate - which ever way you can!