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FOCUSED SHIFT VIEW

Airway Symptoms & Stridor

Recognize a threatened airway early; call help before the airway becomes impossible.

Open full pathway
Educational first-pass aid. Reassess the patient, confirm doses and use local protocols.

1 · First minutes

  1. Assess ability to speak, swallow secretions, oxygenate, and lie flat while calling senior airway help early.
  2. Differentiate obstruction (foreign body, edema, infection, mass) from lower-airway wheeze.
  3. Prepare a shared airway plan: primary approach, backup, and surgical-airway rescue; use local protocols.

2 · Escalate now if

  • Stridor at rest or silent/tiring airway
  • Drooling, tripod position, inability to lie flat
  • Rapidly progressive face/tongue/neck swelling
  • Muffled voice, trismus, toxic appearance
  • Burns, soot, enclosed-space smoke exposure

3 · Immediate workup

  • Continuous monitoring and airway equipment; capnography when feasible
  • Flexible visualization or imaging only when the airway is stable and expert teams agree

4 · Don’t miss

  • Impending upper-airway obstruction
    Stridor at rest, drooling, muffled voice, exhaustion, or altered mentation requires immediate expert airway management.
  • Anaphylaxis / angioedema
    Treat as anaphylaxis when systemic allergic features or airway progression are present; do not wait for rash.
  • Epiglottitis / deep-neck-space infection
    Toxic appearance, odynophagia out of proportion, trismus, neck swelling, or voice change; avoid forceful examination.
  • Foreign body aspiration
    Sudden onset, unilateral findings, choking, or persistent symptoms after a choking event.

5 · Disposition lane

Admit / ENT / anesthesia

Persistent stridor, suspected infection, recurrent edema, or uncertain airway trajectory.

Resuscitation / operating room

Threatened airway, rapidly progressive swelling, inhalation injury, or foreign body with obstruction.