Airway Surgery: What's in Your Toolbox?

[Romaine Johnson MD]
That's one of the things with the toolbox, right? The airway toolbox. What are the things that you need when you're going to do an airway case consistently? What are some of the things that you all feel like that's got to be on the back-table every airway case no matter what?

[Laura Matrka MD]
I mean, for me, I did my whole Triologic thesis at answering this question. For me, I try to use the same setup for every difficult airway even if I'm not going to need some of the things just for consistency's sake. A good scope, a good subglottic scope, in my case, I love the extended length or that is called the Garrett extension of the Ossoff-Pilling scope. That's just an absolute go-to for me. You can ventilate through it there. I love it. When I get the chance, I try to have a resident expose someone with maybe a different scope, and when they can't we then they try again with the [Garrett extension of the Ossoff-Pilling scope] and just see what a difference a good scope makes. And then, I could go on answering this question forever so I want to make sure everyone else gets a chance.

[Mark Gerber MD]
I'm listening to Dr. Matrka saying I need to do a better job at teaching that. I'm a little bit like, you give me a butter knife, I will take care of the problem. So, I am not as much of a planner. I think that is an incredible point that I've just learned something. I'm not too old to learn something new. It just reminds me. Yes, if I have a trainee in my room and we're getting set up for a case, I am talking about the instruments and what I want up there in front of me as I prepare for the individual case, and I'm sort of looking around the room. If it's open, I'm less worried. If it's a endoscopic case, I'm much more attentive to the instrumentation, the appropriate size laryngoscope, the appropriate size telescopes, depending on the size of the child, whether or not I'm going to need a bronchoscope or a tracheal scope at times where just the opening is only at the distal end. Those things I'm very attentive to in endoscopic, and open, I worry about it a little bit less. When it's open, am I going to be wanting a drill to take care of a thick posterior cricoid plate if I'm doing a cricotracheal resection? Little things like that, and suture, if I'm doing a slight tracheoplasty. Those things are important.