Fine Governance of Difficult Tracheostomy in Difficult Airway with Stridor and Respiratory Distress

Difficult airway is a commonly encountered problem in the anesthesia practice, might needing otolaryngologist expert in creation of surgical airway. Supraglottic airways, surgical or needle cricothyrotomy, high frequency jet ventilation, cardiopulmonary bypass (Tunstall in Can J Anaesth 36:611-613, 1989) are initial rescue measures in such scenario. But in otolaryngology practice, patient presenting with stridor having difficult airway and difficult tracheostomy concurrently will definitely pose problems resulting in life-threatening consequences. We report cases in which difficult airway and difficult tracheostomy coexisted. (1) upper tracheal stenosis following strangulation and intubation (2) short neck with obesity (3) blunt trauma to neck with surgical emphysema (4) deep neck space infection (5) Paediatric tracheostomy in faucial diphtheria. Though difficult surgical tracheostomy in difficult airway is challenging, the anticipation of complications and planning can minimise the difficulty in the technique.

Keywords: Difficult airway; Difficult tracheostomy.