🩺 Symptom Guide
Choking
Assess urgently for partial versus complete airway obstruction, aspiration, upper airway compromise, and deterioration to cardiac arrest.
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Red flags
- Unable to cough or speak
- silent choking
- cyanosis
- severe respiratory distress
First actions / assessment
- ABCDE first with immediate airway focus
- rapidly determine whether the person has mild choking with an effective cough or severe choking with ineffective cough/inability to speak or breathe
- check for cyanosis, stridor, work of breathing, voice/noise production, and mental status
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- Full differential diagnosis list
- History, examination, and investigations
- Linked protocols and drug doses
- Offline access and portfolio logging
Symptom Guide · StatResus — Emergency Medicine Reference