Upper Airway Illnesses
This viral illness typically presents with a barking cough, inspiratory stridor, and worse symptoms at night.
What is croup?
This lower airway illness in infants often presents with coryza, crackles, and increased work of breathing.
What is bronchiolitis?
This anatomical feature is proportionally larger in children and contributes to airway obstruction.
What is the tongue?
The formula for estimating cuffed ETT size in children.
What is age/4 + 3.5?
This must always be correlated with blood gases after intubation.
What is end‑tidal CO₂?
A child with drooling, tripod posture, muffled voice, and high fever most likely has this condition.
What is epiglottitis?
This scoring tool assesses severity of pediatric asthma using wheeze, air entry, and retractions.
What is the PRAM score?
In infants and young children, this part of the airway is naturally funnel‑shaped and acts as the physiologic bottleneck during breathing.
What is the subglottic region?
The ideal ETT tip position on pediatric CXR is at this thoracic level.
What is T2–T3 (mid‑trachea)?
This post‑intubation value must remain below 20 cm H₂O to prevent mucosal injury while still maintaining an adequate seal.
What is the ETT cuff pressure?
This condition often presents suddenly during unsupervised play and may cause unilateral decreased air entry.
What is foreign body aspiration?
A “silent chest” in asthma indicates this life‑threatening complication.
What is impending respiratory failure?
This head feature in infants can cause airway obstruction when supine without proper positioning.
What is a large occiput?
This cuff pressure range is ideal for microcuff tubes.
What is 5–15 cm H₂O?
This sedation scale ranges from +2 (agitated) to –3 (unresponsive).
What is the State Behavioral Scale (SBS)?
This radiographic sign is associated with croup.
What is the steeple sign?
This medication should be given early in asthma exacerbations and can be oral or IV.
What are corticosteroids?
Because infants have double the oxygen consumption of adults and a much lower functional residual capacity, apneic desaturation occurs rapidly. To delay this during RSI, this technique delivers continuous oxygen flow through the nares even after induction.
What is apneic oxygenation?
This maneuver helps relieve laryngospasm by applying pressure behind the mandible.
What is Larson’s maneuver?
This condition can cause difficulty ventilating and may require NG/OG decompression.
What is gastric distension?
This radiographic sign is associated with epiglottitis.
What is the thumb sign?
This IV medication is used in severe asthma with impending respiratory failure and helps with smooth muscle relaxation.
What is magnesium sulfate?
This part of the pediatric airway is soft and easily collapsible, increasing obstruction risk.
What is the laryngeal/tracheal cartilage?
This combination of factors explains why children desaturate faster than adults during apnea.
What are higher oxygen consumption (6 mL/kg/min) and lower functional residual capacity?
After intubation, this post‑intubation complication can mimic worsening lung disease, increase peak pressures, reduce chest rise, and cause sudden desaturation but is rapidly reversible once recognized.
What is mainstem bronchial intubation?