Emergency airway management
Clinical teaching and practical ideas for your next study session.
Case Discussion
When the Intubated Asthmatic Crashes: Auto-PEEP or Tension Pneumothorax?
In severe asthma, sudden post-intubation hypotension with high airway pressures is not automatically a tension pneumothorax. This case framework uses ventilator waveforms, pressure patterns, and the response to a brief disconnection while maintaining oxygenation as needed to recognize dynamic hyperinflation, then explains when chest decompression cannot wait.