Upper airway assessment and its implications for interventions by respiratory physiotherapists

Background When noninvasive interventions such as chest physiotherapy fail, then more aggressive interventions for airway secretion clearance with nasotracheal airway suctioning may be required. Clinicians however have to insert the nasotracheal suction catheter "blindly" and the success of being able to trigger a cough and pass through the vocal folds with a suction catheter is low. Case Description The patient, a 48-year-old male underwent a heart and lung transplant. Following extubation, the patient developed secretion retention with a weak ineffective cough and swallow and required physiotherapy interventions with frequent "blind" passes of nasotracheal suctioning. Outcomes The patient required nasotracheal suction with frequent multiple failed attempts before successful passage of the suction catheter to trigger a cough reflex and clear secretions. A combined physiotherapist and speech and language therapist intervention during fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallow (FEES) was recorded to both evaluate swallow and passage of the suction catheter. The video illustrated the successful passage of a suctioning catheter through the vocal folds leading to an effective cough and airway clearance. Discussion We present a case report demonstrating that it is feasible to visualize the upper airways during nasotracheal suctioning as an objective means to guide the more accurate successful insertion of the suction catheter past the vocal folds. Rather than "blind" placement of nasotracheal suction catheters visualization using transnasal laryngoscopy should be useful to increase chances of passing through the vocal folds.