Master ENT Surgery

Snoring and Upper Airway Resistance

• 1Airway resistance varies inversely with the fourth power of the radius, so even modest narrowing has a disproportionate effect: halving the airway diameter multiplies resistance sixteen-fold.
• 2Snoring is technically stertor, a low-pitched noise arising from obstruction at the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal level, distinguishing it from sounds generated lower in the airway.

Tonsillectomy

In the team brief the anaesthesia team mention they need to avoid the precipitants of sickle cell crisis. A sickle cell crisis may be precipitated by which of the following conditions?