Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2015; 3(11): 926-929
Published online Nov 16, 2015. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v3.i11.926
Ultrasound: A promising tool for contemporary airway management
Rakesh Garg, Anju Gupta
Rakesh Garg, Department of Anaesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Care, Dr BRAIRCH, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi1 10029, India
Anju Gupta, Department of Anaesthesiology, Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi1 10001, India
Author contributions: Both the authors conceptualized the idea, reviewed the literature and wrote the editorial; both authors approved the final manuscript editorial.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Both the authros do not have any commercial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Rakesh Garg, Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Care, Dr BRAIRCH, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS, Room No. 139, Ist Floor, New Delhi110029, India. drrgarg@hotmail.com
Telephone: +91-98-10394950
Received: March 2, 2015
Peer-review started: March 3, 2015
First decision: July 10, 2015
Revised: August 14, 2015
Accepted: September 25, 2015
Article in press: September 28, 2015
Published online: November 16, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Airway evaluation and its’ management is conventionally based on clinical examination and radiological imaging. They remain static and do not provide dynamic airway management option. Visualized procedures like ultrasound (US) provide point of care real time dynamic views of the airway in perioperative, emergency and critical care settings. US also aids in detecting gastric contents and the nature of gastric contents (clear fluid, thick turbid or solid). This detection is important for preventing complication of aspiration during airway management. The ultrasonography has brought a paradigm shift in the practise of airway management. With increasing awareness, portability, accessibility and further sophistication in technology, it is likely to find a place in routine airway management. We are not far from the time when all of us will be carrying a pocket US machine like stethoscopes to corroborate our clinical findings at point of care.