Airway Management: Extubation Criteria

At a minimum, the patient must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Oxygenation – adequate SpO2
2. Ventilation – spontaneous, and maintaining sufficient minute ventilation on minimal ventilator support to achieve acceptable ETCO2
3. Airway patency – may be difficult to assess with ETT in situ
4. Airway protection – ideally awake and able to follow commands, and any paralysis agents reversed
5. Hemodynamically stable

Most patients are extubated at the end of an elective operation. Reintubations are rare (.1 – 0.2%). Emergent reintubations are typically more difficult than the initial intubation.

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