Airway management
The airway is the path air takes from the nose and mouth to the lungs. For anatomy teaching it divides into the upper airway (nasal cavity, oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx down to the vocal cords) and the lower airway (trachea, bronchi, and the bronchial tree). For airway management the useful division is different: what can be seen with a laryngoscope, what can be reached with a tube, and what has to be bypassed with a front-of-neck approach. The diagrams on this page are drawn to serve both — the anatomical labels a student needs and the landmarks a clinician actually uses.
The sagittal view is the one to teach from first. It shows why the airway is not a straight line — the oral, pharyngeal, and laryngeal axes sit at angles to one another — and why positioning the head changes what can be seen. That is the whole basis of the sniffing position, of why a laryngoscope blade lifts rather than levers, and of why some airways are difficult. The anterior view of the larynx and the trachea then gives the structures a tube passes through and rests in.
Each figure is available with labels, for a first pass through the material, and without them, for a quiz or for walking through a case at the whiteboard. All are vector drawings that scale cleanly to a projector, and every label can be edited or translated in the editor.
In the lecture
The foundation figure. Have it on screen when explaining the three airway axes and why head position matters. Point out how the tongue and epiglottis can fall back against the posterior pharyngeal wall in an unconscious patient — that is the obstruction a jaw thrust relieves.
In the lecture
The structure a laryngoscope is trying to show you. Teach the epiglottis as the landmark to find first, the vocal cords as the target, and the cricoid ring below as the narrowest fixed point in a child's airway. This figure pairs with the glottic view from the intubation sequence.
In the lecture
Where the tube ends up. The right main bronchus is wider, shorter and more vertical, which is why a tube advanced too far enters the right lung — and why a right-only chest rise after intubation means the tube needs to come back. Use it to teach the carina as the depth limit.
In the lecture
Closes the sequence at the destination. Useful for showing the lobes a bronchoscope reaches and for the discussion of one-lung ventilation.
These diagrams are teaching aids drawn to show the structures and steps that matter at slide size. They are reviewed against standard anatomy and airway references but are simplified for clarity, and are not a substitute for clinical training, local guidelines, or supervised practice.
All respiratory diagrams