Airway management is a common and key method to maintain and improve external respiration function of patients. Emergency physicians need a more appropriate guide to airway management. We concisely concluded current circumstances of Chinese emergency airway management. Then, we raised four principles: (I) priority to ventilation and oxygenation; (II) evaluation before intubation; (III) higher level of preparation (de-escalation); (IV) simplest (and least potentially harmful) form of intubation. We raised "CHANNEL" flow to direct initial emergency airway management and an algorithm was showed for emergency physicians understanding key points of airway management and further making medical decision. Finally, we introduced pharmacology of airway management.
Keywords: Emergency medicine; airway management; intubation; tracheostomy.