Practice Open Access CMAJ 194 (37) E1289; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.220525 We prepared to anesthetize an 83-year-old, 75-kg man with an unstable cervical vertebra 5 (C5) spine fracture for a posterior cervical decompression and fusion. He was neurologically intact, wearing a hard cervical collar, and had fasted for more than 12 hours. Assuming an “empty” stomach, we planned to intubate using an asleep fibre optic technique to minimize neck movement during airway manipulation.
