Equipment for airway management

Airway management provides gas exchange, protects the lungs from injury and permits treatment. This requires safe, effective and reliable use of equipment, often in combination. A management plan with backups is essential, but a sequence of logical plans forming an airway management strategy is better. Correct equipment use needs correct knowledge, skill and attitudes. There are five approaches to airway management in which equipment is used: facemask ventilation with adjuncts, use of supraglottic airway devices, tracheal intubation with a variety of laryngoscopes (including the flexible fibreoptic bronchoscope), front of neck (transtracheal) access using cricothyroidotomy or tracheostomy and airway clearance with suction or foreign body removal. Tracheal tubes and aids for placement are described.