Airway Management Flashcards
7 cards from real ABA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Airway Management flashcards as text
What is the primary advantage of video laryngoscopy compared to direct laryngoscopy?
Answer: Improved glottic visualization without requiring direct line-of-sight alignment
Video laryngoscopy uses a camera at the blade tip to display the glottis on a screen, allowing visualization without requiring the oral-pharyngeal-laryngeal axes to be aligned.
The intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA/LMA Fastrach) is primarily designed to:
Answer: Facilitate blind or fiberoptic-assisted tracheal intubation through the device
The ILMA has a metal handle, modified airway tube, and elevated epiglottic elevating bar to align a tracheal tube with the glottis, enabling blind or guided intubation through it.
During awake fiberoptic intubation, which topical anesthetic agent is most commonly used to anesthetize the airway mucosa?
Answer: Lidocaine 4%
Lidocaine 4% (or 2%) is the most widely used agent for topical airway anesthesia due to its rapid onset, adequate duration, and favorable safety profile when used in appropriate doses.
The cricothyroid membrane is the preferred site for emergency surgical airway access for which of the following reasons?
Answer: It is relatively avascular and lies just below the skin surface
The cricothyroid membrane is preferred because it is superficial, relatively avascular, and easily identifiable between the thyroid and cricoid cartilages.
Which of the following best describes the technique of retrograde intubation?
Answer: Advancing a guide wire cephalad through the cricothyroid membrane and out the mouth to railroad an endotracheal tube
Retrograde intubation involves puncturing the cricothyroid membrane, advancing a guide wire upward through the cords and out the mouth or nose, then railroading the endotracheal tube over the wire.
External laryngeal manipulation using the BURP maneuver involves applying pressure in which direction on which structure?
Answer: Backward, Upward, and Rightward pressure on the thyroid cartilage
BURP (Backward, Upward, Rightward Pressure) is applied to the thyroid cartilage by an assistant to shift the larynx into a better position for the intubating laryngoscopist.
During awake fiberoptic intubation, superior laryngeal nerve blocks are performed to anesthetize which airway structures?
Answer: Supraglottic structures including the epiglottis and piriform fossae
The internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve carries sensation from the epiglottis, aryepiglottic folds, and supraglottic mucosa, which are blocked during this technique.