2023 Volume 51 Issue 4 Pages 123-126
Local anesthesia of the upper airway during awake intubation is very important to alleviate pain and facilitate the procedure. In this case report, we used a MICRO MIST Nebulizer to allow a patient to inhale lidocaine for local anesthesia of the upper airway, enabling a smooth and safe awake nasal fiberoptic intubation in a patient with severe obesity and cervical abscess. The patient was a 66-year-old male with a height of 168 cm, a weight of 108 kg, and a BMI of 38 kg/m2. Cervical abscess incision and debridement under general anesthesia were scheduled for the treatment of acute cervical abscess. Because of severe neck swelling and obesity, anesthesia induction was predicted to be difficult ; we therefore selected full awake nasal fiberoptic intubation with local anesthesia of the upper airway.
The patient was instructed to inhale a 4% lidocaine mist using a MICRO MIST nebulizer while receiving 8 L/min oxygen. After inhaling the lidocaine, awake fiberoptic nasal intubation was performed. No sedatives were used during the intubation. The oxygen saturation did not decrease during the fiberoptic intubation, and the intubation was performed smoothly with minimal gagging reflex, coughing reflex, swallowing reflex, or body movement. This case report suggests that local anesthesia of the upper airway using a MICRO MIST nebulizer is a useful and safe method for performing awake fiberoptic intubation in patients predicted to have a difficult airway.
