Nasotracheal intubation: look before you leap

Nasotracheal intubation is frequently used for airway management during maxillofacial surgery. Complications such as haemorrhage occur more frequently with this route of intubation than with the orotracheal route. This case report describes a male patient aged 51 yr who developed severe epistaxis after the tube had passed the nares. As an additional complication laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation failed because of difficult airway (Cormack-Lehane grade 4). Attempts using an intubating laryngeal mask airway and a Bonfils intubating fibrescope did not succeed. The airway was finally managed by cricothyroidotomy. A modified sequence of nasotracheal intubation is proposed to avoid similar life-threatening complications.