In obstructive sleep apnea, the airway repeatedly collapses during sleep causing sufferers to stop breathing briefly.
More than half of those taken to hospital with serious injuries arrive with some airway obstruction.
Doctors will first check the affected person's airway and help maintain breathing (respiration) and circulation.
People are now beginning to look at whether the airway skills that paramedics are taught are adequate.
When this occurs, it's called chronic upper airway cough syndrome (or postnasal drip).
When something triggers asthma, the muscle around the walls of the airways tightens so that the airway becomes narrower.
Treatment often includes inhaled corticosteroids, to reduce inflammation, and long- and short-acting beta agonists like albuterol, to relax airway muscles.
Why: If corticosteroids alone aren't working, an anti-leukotriene can block the chemicals that are further fueling airway swelling and spasms.
Sleep apnea is commonly treated with a "continuous positive airway pressure, " or CPAP, machine worn at night to keep the airway open.
In July, officials said a week-old giant panda cub died at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo after its mother's milk accidentally entered its airway.
Teeth grinding is a major indicator that you are struggling to keep your airway open at night and might suffer from obstructive sleep apnea.
Three of the babies -- Will, David and Marcie -- are on nasal prongs, which provide them with continuous positive airway pressure, Burgess said.
In cystic fibrosis, this mechanism is far less effective, because the level of salt concentration in the airway surface liquid is far too high.
"The only reason we keep that breathing tube in is to protect her airway so that she doesn't have complications like pneumonia, " he told reporters.
The first thing a paramedic has to do is ensure the patient can breathe properly, that their airway is clear - vital to prevent brain damage.
Using an experimental technique never before tried on a human, they created a splint made out of biological material that effectively carved a path through Kaiba's blocked airway.
Some people benefit from a special mouthpiece or a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine that keeps the airway open and prevents long pauses in breathing during sleep.
Smoking creates swelling in the upper airway, making apnea worse.
It was interesting that while the signs and symptoms of a heart attack were unknown to them, maintaining the airway of a patient with gunshot wounds was second nature.
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As you can see from some of the video there ... doctors literally pounced on him, got him straightened out, brought him into this triage area and ... secured an airway.
"The AAP recognizes that monitors may be helpful to allow rapid recognition of apnea, airway obstruction, respiratory failure, interruption of supplemental oxygen supply, or failure of mechanical respiratory support, " the group states.
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The main issue is that after surgery, the diameter of the airway is actually smaller as the relaxed position of the vocal cords prevent the passage of less breath than before the procedure.
Between ages 3 and 5 "the airway is still small but the tonsils and adenoids are at their largest, " says Jodi Mindell associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Also increasing is the balance in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund because user fees and taxes, which were intended to be dedicated exclusively to aviation improvements, are not being invested as they should be.
Why: Inhaled corticosteroids reduce airway inflammation long-term.
In a general sense, vocal cord paralysis can be more difficult to treat since the main focus is to make the folds further apart to improve the airway, but not so much as to affect the quality of the voice.
"US Airway (currently) loses money on that short segment, but if they can carry that passenger to another major hub or fly them internationally, they capture that incremental revenue, " says Vaughn Cordle, an airline analyst and co-founder of Ionosphere Capital.
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