Tracheal Stent Buckling and In-stent Stenosis: A Proposed Airway Management Algorithm for Airway Obstruction for Patients With Tracheal Stents

Abstract

EMERGENCY AIRWAY management strategies for patients with complications due to tracheobronchial stents are of growing interest to anesthesiologists. Although tracheal stenting increasingly is used to manage tracheobronchial stenosis of both benign and malignant conditions,^1-3 official guidelines for the perioperative airway management of patients with tracheobronchial stents in situ are lacking.³ Here, the authors discuss the management of airway obstruction from a tracheal stent strut protrusion and in-stent stenosis in a patient with a self-expanding nitinol tracheal stent in situ. They discuss the airway management strategy employed and outline a pragmatic airway management algorithm for patients with tracheal stents presenting with airway obstruction.

Keywords: airway obstruction; bronchoscopy; crisis management; surgery; thoracic; tracheobronchial stents.