Anesthesia… nobody really knows what we do or deal with at all hours of the day and night. Type A dissections, crash C/S’s, major Trauma (recently had a hip disarticulation come through our trauma bay for major MVC with torn illiac arteries- what a case that was), ruptured AAA, exit procedures, VV/VA ECMO, I mean the list just keeps going. Funny how people (and even our fellow physicians) really don’t appreciate what we do day to day. This case is no exception… F’n love this specialty even though we are always the ninja’s hiding in the background.
So someone mentioned it earlier in the thread and I agree with them 100%… these cases suck- especially emergently at 2 am. Not only are they high risk, but careful planing and execution is key or things may spiral out of control quickly. One of my partners had a similar case last year with a 1 y/o pedi patient and the AW was lost. Traumatic for everyone involved.
The Case:
*Review the CT scan and any other images before taking these cases back. This patient demonstrated all the things that scare us regarding neck tumors including mass effect and 3mm hole (probably less) at the narrowest part of the AW. I then looked at the endoscopy pictures to get a feeling to the tumors friability… large ulcerated mass, huge inflamed arytenoids R>L, vocal cords obliterated by the tumor, etc and an extremely small hole the patient is breathing through. The mass over the glottic inlet did not look like a hard mass, but my spider sense was still going off at 1000%.
Note: The options are always the same. Awake trach vs awake/sv glide vs AFOI vs DL. Anyone giving neuromuscular blockers before an appropriate ETCO2 capnogram/wave form is not doing it right.
So ENT sat and reviewed the CT scan with me. My first question is exactly what many of you on this thread were going for and you guys are all correct. Awake trach please. Problem is this patient is a difficult trach due to her exaggerated kyphosis, poor landmarks as well a history of severe anxiety and inability to lie still (or flat for that matter) during her previous endoscopies. Crap. Deck is stacked against both of ENT and myself.
First thing to do with these cases is ALWAYS the same. You NEED to speak the patient and put the fear of god into their head because this is as serious as it gets and they need to be as cooperative as they can be. I told her that we were going to topicalize her, bring her back to the OR and I was going to place a video scope into her mouth for me to further asses her life threatening situation and make some decisions at that time.
The one bone that was thrown at me is that the patient was edentulous and she did not have fixed small mouth opening due to tumor invasion. The only positive of the case.
I tried being opened minded to ENT. She was definitely willing to attempt to do the trach awake, but it would be very difficult. Trach would basically be in the sitting position with difficult landmarks and an uncooperative patient. So I listened and definitely saw the challenge with an awake trach. She wasn’t being lazy or incompetent at all. Just as worried as I was with no great solutions.
So to the OR we go:
Ramped her up with a ton of blankets and had the head of the table flexed. Lowered the bed all the way to the ground and grabbed a step up so I could comfortably be positioned over her head. All rescue AW stuff in the room ready to go. I was fairly satisfied with the topicalization so I asked her to stick our her tongue while I placed the glidescope in her mouth. She did well for about 2 nano-seconds before the patient started freaking out, thrashing, etc. I did get a descent view of the tumor and a tiny little hole I assumed led to be the glottic opening. Mass effect on the right was very evident… but I did get to get a look at inspiration and expiration and was able to see the arytenoids were not complete stuck in a fixed position. Well ****…. OK that is another positive.
Decision point time:
Some people on the thread here suggested midazolam, remi, ketamine, fentanyl, dexmedatomidine, etc… I think that in an AW like this, you need the most titratable on-off medication we have in our bag. For me this is propofol 100% of the time. I did the most gentle slow sedation known to man. 20 mg pushes while keeping the patient spontaneously breathing all the while assisting/feeling for compliance with my right hand on the bag. After a while I could tell she was getting where I needed her- I reached a depth of anesthesia I felt was good enough to take another look. I did so fully knowing this is likely the one shot I have to get this right. Gave her a final 30 mg of prop and waited 20 seconds before I inserted the low profile glide scope. Took it easy and started with at the tongue and worked my way back- the last thing I wanted to do is to insert it too far and make the tumor start to bleed. The mass that was obstructing the glottic opening looked soft… so I gently pushed it out of the way with my 5.0 cuffed tube loaded on the glidescope stylet and then carefully twisted it past the tumor and into the little hole during inspiration to maximize the the caliber of the opening- railroaded off of the stylet. Based on the CT scan, I was pretty confident that there was no tumor that would obstruct ventilation past the vocal cord inlet as it opened up further down the trachea. Once I had ETCO2 I pushed 80mg of roc secured the ETT with a death grip benzoin/silk tape combo and the drama was suddenly over. Brought her iO2 down to 30 and proceeded to trach the patient right above the sternal notch with 2 ENT surgeons doing the work.
Here are a few learning points.
1). Insert the fear of god into patients during your interview to include them in the plan and let them know what to expect.
2). Look at imaging including CXR, CT scans and any endoscopy pictures that may alert you to the complexity of the case.
3). Respect a sitting patient that can hardly talk.
4). Always maintain SV with a drug that is quickly titratable. For me there is no better option than propofol- quick on quick off if performed by a knowledgeable anesthesiologist.
5). Topicalize heavily add some glyco. Regional AW blocks where applicable. Maybe insert a 18G angiocath through the cricoidthyroid membrane and squirt from below.
6). Have an exit plan. Prep the neck if you have to before you give it a go. Always have the option to back out.
7). Work together with ENT and try to understand their surgical issues- we are a team and rely on each other.
8). Don’t $hit your pants. Keep the room calm and collected and smelling good. You loose your $hit then the rest of the room will follow.
9). Call for help if you need to.
Glad things went well and the patient feels much much better after the trach. Comfort care is not quite what I would have wished for this poor patient. It was worth a try to get her the operation so that whatever life is left will be somewhat comfortable. Palliative care for an obstructing laryngeal tumor is an awful way to check out.
Below is the view I captured on the glidescope right before intubation. Nasty tumor, scary looking opening. As opposed to the inflamed hardy looking arytenoids, you get the feeling that the the part of the tumor covering the glottic opening is somewhat mobile and pliable.
At the end of the day any strategy that doesn’t kill the patient is a viable strategy. Awake trach, SV intubation as well as palliative. VV ECMO would be the easiest but is institutional dependent. There is no right answer here.
Hope you guys enjoyed the case.