If your patient has an artificial airway in place, he /she should be assessed for air entry and adventitious or hazardous breath sounds while the artificial airway should be checked for placement and secretions/cleanliness. Secretions left unchecked can lead to many complications especially increased airway resistance. Secretion removal can be performed using clean or sterile open suction techniques. This video looks at how sterile open suctioning is performed on a patient with an ETT