Prise en charge des fausses-routes graves chez le sujet âgé : intérêt de la manœuvre de la table

More than 4000 fatal episodes of foreign-body airway obstruction are reported yearly in France, making this the fourth most common cause of accidental death. Along with young children, older subjects with underlying neurologic deficits or those taking sedatives have the greatest risk of fatal choking. In the present article, we recall the international guidelines in case of choking in older people. The procedure to adopt depends on the patient's state of consciousness and ability to breath or talk. We describe the table maneuver, which is a potentially life-saving technique that can be applied to conscious patients with severe choking, i.e. unable to breathe or talk, who fail to respond to the Heimlich maneuver and other conventional treatments.