References
Prehospital airway management
Abstract
The prehospital emergency airway management is a key moderating factor for patient survival and mortality rates. There has been much debate around the optimum method of prehospital emergency airway management. This commentary critically appraises a recent systematic review which assesses the harms and benefits of three different airway management strategies for a range of emergency clinical scenarios.
The optimal emergency management of a patient's airway is one of the most important aspects of prehospital emergency care and one that has—and continues to be—much debated by prehospital clinical specialty groups and professional bodies (Gowens et al, 2018). It is critical to the successful management of a patient's airway that appropriately trained clinicians use the correct skills, equipment and strategies to meet the patient's airway needs and failure to do so is likely to impact negatively on patient morbidity and mortality (Cook et al, 2021). Endotracheal intubation has long been considered the ‘gold standard’ for airway management, but there has been controversy in recent years about which approach to airway management is optimal in the prehospital setting given the variable success rates and high complications associated with prehospital endotracheal intubation and recent advances in supraglottic airway devices (van Schuppen et al, 2021). The systematic review by Carney et al (2021) aims to provide an evidence base to inform recommendations and practice for prehospital airway management; it was also intended to inform the development of guidelines within the United States.
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