Submental intubation: experience with 30 cases

Introduction

When a patient has multiple injuries, involving serious fractures in the maxillofacial region and base of skull, a tracheostomy is often performed to approach the different affected facial thirds simultaneously. Submental intubation offers an alternative to this type of airway management, involving a decreased risk for the patient due to its safety and versatility in treating nasal fractures and re-establishment of dental occlusion.

Materials

A total of 30 patients with different degrees of involvement of the facial thirds (superior, middle and inferior) were treated by our team, performing a submental intubation to maintain the airway. These fractures affected nasal bones and dental occlusion.

Results

In all cases we accomplished an adequate reduction of nasal fractures and obtained an accurate dental occlusion, with no incidents during or after this intubation.

Conclusions

Submental intubation is a good alternative to treat multiple injury patients who have nasal and oral cavities involvement, avoiding the use of tracheostomy in cases that do not need it.