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When someone can't breathe, every second matters.

Today, placing a breathing tube into the airway is one of the most recognizable procedures in emergency medicine—but getting to this point took more than 4,000 years of trial, tragedy, and innovation.

In this episode of The Cadaver's Lessons, we trace the incredible history of airway management from ancient Egyptian tracheotomies and the physicians who dared to cut into the neck, to the diphtheria epidemics that inspired the first successful intubation devices, the birth of modern anesthesia, World War I reconstructive surgery, and the invention of the laryngoscope that forever changed emergency medicine.

Then we bring the story into the modern emergency department, explaining how intubation is actually performed today, why bag-valve masks and supraglottic airways are often just as important, and why securing an airway during CPR is far more controversial than television would have you believe.

📚 References

1. American Heart Association. (2020). 2020 American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care. Circulation, 142(16_suppl_2). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000732
2. Berkow, L. C., & Garcia, J. (2025). How to do head tilt–chin lift and jaw-thrust maneuvers. Merck Manual Professional Edition. Retrieved July 19, 2026, from https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/critical-care-medicine/how-to-do-basic-airway-procedures/how-to-do-head-tilt-chin-lift-and-jaw-thrust-maneuvers
3. Berkow, L. C., & Garcia, J. (2025). How to insert an oropharyngeal airway. Merck Manual Professional Edition. Retrieved July 19, 2026, from https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/critical-care-medicine/how-to-do-basic-airway-procedures/how-to-insert-an-oropharyngeal-airway
4. Böttiger, B. W., & Van Aken, H. (2022). History of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. European Journal of Anaesthesiology, 39(4), 331–339. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8951653/
5. Brimacombe, J. (Ed.). (1995). History of anaesthesia: Early airway management. In The History of Anaesthesia (Chap. 3). Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-69636-7_3
6. Cook, T. M., & Kelly, F. E. (2017). A national survey of videolaryngoscopy in the United Kingdom. Anaesthesia, 72(5), 620–627. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5267589/
7. Life in the Fast Lane. (2024). Rapid sequence intubation (RSI). Retrieved July 19, 2026, from https://litfl.com/rapid-sequence-intubation-rsi/

   FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF RESOURCES VISIT THE LINK AT THE TOP.