Abstract
Airway management of patients following facial trauma poses many challenges to the acute care team. An 80 year old male presented following a pit bull attack with massive trauma to his face, scalp and extremities. After carefully considering the options available, we were able to safely secure his airway by utilizing a WuScope. We confirm that the WuScope is a useful tool for airway management in a case of severe facial trauma.
Highlights
Airway management of patients following facial trauma poses many challenges to the acute care team
We confirm that the WuScope is a useful tool for airway management in a case of severe facial trauma
We describe the use of the WuScope to secure the airway of a patient who suffered severe facial trauma after a pit bull attack
Summary
An 80 year old African American male (173 cm, 80 kg) presented to the emergency center after being attacked by 2 pit bulls while mowing his neighbor’s lawn. He had massive trauma to his face and scalp, including a missing left ear and left eye, and severe damage to his forehead, nose, right eye, and upper lip. He had an avulsion of his scalp and multiple bite wounds on his back, bilateral wrists and legs (Figure 1). He was immediately transported to our trauma operating room for assessment and airway management On physical exam, he was sitting upright, alert, and able to talk and open his mouth without difficulty. Performing an awake fiberoptic intubation was considered, we were deterred by the copious amount of blood in the airway which would have limited the ClinMed
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