Session Key Points

  • Careful inspection of the airway is an essential component of preoperative assessment
  • Maintaining a clear airway under anaesthesia may require careful positioning, chin lift, jaw thrust or the use of airway adjuncts
  • Inspired gases must be warmed and humidified in the intubated patient
  • The glottis is the narrowest part of the airway in adults. Care must be taken to avoid damage to the delicate glottic structures during intubation
  • Cricothyroid puncture may be life saving in the presence of acute upper airway obstruction at or above the larynx