Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode

I'm going to be talking to you about common procedures in anesthetics. And you can find written

notes on this topic at zero definals.com procedures or in the anaesthetics and ICU section of the

zero to finals surgery book. So let's get straight into it. Let's start by talking about the basic

anatomy of the upper airway. If you were to travel from the nostrils down to the trachea or the airway,

you'd first travel through the nasal cavity,

then across the top of the palate to the pharynx or the throat,

past the epiglottis, which protects food from going into the airway,

then you'd reach the opening of the larynx, go through the vocal

chords and down into the larynx and the trachea. If you were to go through the mouth, you'd first

come across the lips, then the teeth, then pass the tongue into the pharynx, past the epiglottis,

and again to the opening of the larynx, vocal cords, and then the larynx, past the epiglottis, and again to the opening of the larynx vocal cords,

and then the larynx and trachea. Beside the opening of the larynx is the esophagus, which leads down

to the stomach. When something enters through the nose or the mouth and into the pharynx,

it can either go into the esophagus down to the stomach

or into the larynx past the vocal cords and into the trachea down to the lungs.

Next let's talk about endotracheal intubation.

An endotracheal tube or an ETT is a flexible plastic tube with an inflatable cuff or a balloon at one end

and a connector at the other. The tip of the endotracheal tube is inserted through the mouth,

through the throat or the pharynx, through the larynx and the vocal cords, and into the trachea. Endotracheal tubes come in

different sizes so that they match the size of the patient, with their diameter written in millimeters.

So, for example, a diameter of 7 to 7.5 millimeters may be used for women, and 8 to 8.5 millimeters for men.

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