Perhaps the most important responsibility of any clinician is management of the patient’s airway.
The pulmonary airway comprises those parts of the respiratory system through which air flows, conceptually beginning (on inhalation from the external environment) at the nose and mouth, and terminating in the alveoli. It is at the alveoli that molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide are passively exchanged via diffusion, between the gaseous external environment and the blood.
Certain conditions require tracheal intubation (insertion of a tube) to secure the patency of the airway.