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Background: Anesthesia trainee may initially take longer time to intubate and unintentionally place the endotracheal tube (ETT) in the esophagus. The present study determined if ultrasound is the fastest method of confirmation of correct placement of ETT compared to capnography, and chest auscultation in trainees. Methods: First year anesthesia residents performed intubation in 120 patients recruited after ethical clearance and informed consent. Time to visualize flutter in trachea, double trachea sign, time to appearance of first and sixth capnography, and time to execute chest auscultation was noted. Results: Ultrasonography was statistically fastest method to determine endotracheal intubation (36.50 ± 15.14 seconds) vs unilateral chest auscultation (50.29 ± 15.50 seconds) vs bilateral chest auscultation (51.90 ± 15.98 seconds) vs capnography first waveform (53.57 ± 15.97 seconds) vs capnography sixth waveform (61.67 ± 15.88 seconds). Conclusion: When teaching endotracheal intubation to novice anesthesia residents using conventional direct laryngoscopy, ultrasonography is the fastest method to confirm correct ETT placement compared to capnograph and chest auscultation. Mentor can guide trainee to direct ETT towards trachea and can promptly detect esophageal intubation by double trachea sign.

Background After traumatic brain injury (TBI), hypotension, hypoxia and hypercapnia have been shown to result in secondary brain injury that can lead to increased mortality and disability. Effective prehospital assessment and treatment by emergency medical service (EMS) is considered essential for favourable outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) in the treatment of TBI patients. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study. Prehospital data from two periods were collected: before (EMS group) and after (HEMS group) the implementation of a physician-staffed HEMS. Unconscious prehospital patients due to severe TBI were included in the study. Unconsciousness was defined as a Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score ≤ 8 and was documented either on-scene, during transportation or by an on-call neurosurgeon on hospital admission. Modified Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) was used for assessment of six-month neurological outcome and good neurological outcome was defined as GOS 4–5. Results Data from 181 patients in the EMS group and 85 patients in the HEMS group were available for neurological outcome analyses. The baseline characteristics and the first recorded vital signs of the two cohorts were similar. Good neurological outcome was more frequent in the HEMS group; 42% of the HEMS managed patients and 28% ( p  = 0.022) of the EMS managed patients had a good neurological recovery. The airway was more frequently secured in the HEMS group ( p  < 0.001). On arrival at the emergency department, the patients in the HEMS group were less often hypoxic ( p  = 0.024). In univariate analysis HEMS period, lower age and secured airway were associated with good neurological outcome. Conclusion The introduction of a physician-staffed HEMS unit resulted in decreased incidence of prehospital hypoxia and increased the number of secured airways. This may have contributed to the observed improved neurological outcome during the HEMS period. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov IDNCT02659046. Registered January 15th, 2016.

Background: Videolaryngoscopy (VLS) is recommended by international guidelines for the management of difficult airways. We conducted an observational prospective pilot study to assess the efficacy of the new VL3 videolaryngoscope for routine tracheal intubation (TI) in adults; in terms of success rate, the number of attempts, and maneuver duration, including both normal and difficult airways. Methods: This prospective observational pilot study comprised a sample of 56 adult patients undergoing elective general anesthesia. For each patient, we performed VLS by VL3 recording the following data: successful TI rate, number of attempts, time of intubation, time to glottis visualization, Cormack-Lehane grade (CL), need for external laryngeal pressure, and presence of post-laryngoscopy side effects. Results: TI was successfully carried out in the totality of patients. In only 4 out of 56 cases, the VL3 offered a CL II. The first attempt intubation was achieved in 48 patients (85.7%). In one case, external laryngeal pressure was needed. No CL III or CL IV were observed. We did not find any significant difference between the predicted difficult airways sample and the rest of the population. Conclusion: VL3 videolaryngoscope showed to be an effective and safe device for routine TI, even in those patients with predicted difficult airway. More studies are needed to confirm our findings and verify its efficacy even in other settings.

BackgroundUnrecognized esophageal intubations are associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality. No single confirmatory device has been shown to be 100 % accurate at ruling out esophageal intubations in the emergency department. Recent studies have demonstrated that point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) may be a useful adjunct for confirming endotracheal tube placement; however, the amount of practice required to become proficient at this technique is unclear. The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of practice required by emergency physicians to become proficient at interpreting ultrasound video clips of esophageal and endotracheal intubations.MethodsEmergency physicians and emergency medicine residents completed a baseline interpretation test followed by a 10 min online tutorial. They then interpreted POCUS clips of esophageal and endotracheal intubations in a randomly selected order. If an incorrect response was provided, the participant completed another practice session with feedback. This process continued until they correctly interpreted ten consecutive ultrasound clips. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data.ResultsOf the 87 eligible physicians, 66 (75.9 %) completed the study. The mean score on the baseline test was 42.9 % (SD 32.7 %). After the tutorial, 90.9 % (60/66) of the participants achieved proficiency after one practice attempt and 100 % achieved proficiency after two practice attempts. Six intubation ultrasound clips were misinterpreted, for a total error rate of 0.9 % (6/684). Overall, the participants had a sensitivity of 98.3 % (95 % CI 96.3–99.4 %) and specificity of 100 % (95 % CI 98.9–100 %) for detecting correct tube location. Scans were interpreted within an average of 4 s (SD 2.9 s) of the intubation.ConclusionsAfter a brief online tutorial and only two practice attempts, emergency physicians were able to quickly and accurately interpret ultrasound intubation clips of esophageal and endotracheal intubations.

Introduction We report data from the first Utstein-style study of physician-provided pre-hospital advanced airway management. Materials and methods Anaesthesiologists from eight pre-hospital critical care teams in the Central Denmark Region (a mixed rural and urban region with 1.27 million inhabitants) prospectively registered data according to the template for reporting data from pre-hospital advanced airway management. Data collection took place from February 1 st 2011 to October 31 st 2012. Included were patients of all ages on whom pre-hospital advanced airway management was performed. The objective was to estimate the incidences of failed and difficult pre-hospital endotracheal intubation, and complications related to pre-hospital advanced airway management. Results The overall incidence of successful pre-hospital endotracheal intubation among 636 intubation attempts was 99.7%, even though 22.4% of pre-hospital endotracheal intubations required more than one intubation attempt. The overall incidence of complications related to pre-hospital advanced airway management was 7.9%. Following rapid sequence intubation, the incidence of first pass success was 85.8%, the overall incidence of complications was 22.0%, the incidence of hypotension 7.3% and that of hypoxia 5.3%. Multiple endotracheal intubation attempts were associated with an increased overall incidence of complications. No airway management related deaths occurred. Discussion The overall incidence of successful pre-hospital endotracheal intubations compares to those found in other physician-staffed pre-hospital systems. The incidence of pre-hospital endotracheal intubations requiring more than one attempt is higher than suspected. The incidence of hypotension or hypoxia after pre-hospital rapid sequence intubation compares to those found in UK emergency departments. Conclusion Pre-hospital advanced airway management including pre-hospital endotracheal intubation performed by experienced anaesthesiologists is associated with high success rates and relatively low incidences of complications. An increased first pass success rate following pre-hospital endotracheal intubation may further reduce the incidence of complications and enhance patient safety in our system.

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of death and permanent disability. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel are often the first healthcare providers attending patients with TBI. The level of available care varies, which may have an impact on the patient’s outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate mortality and neurological outcome of TBI patients in two regions with differently structured EMS systems. Methods A 6-year period (2005 – 2010) observational data on pre-hospital TBI management in paramedic-staffed EMS and physician-staffed EMS systems were retrospectively analysed. Inclusion criteria for the study were severe isolated TBI presenting with unconsciousness defined as Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score ≤ 8 occurring either on-scene, during transportation or verified by an on-call neurosurgeon at admission to the hospital. For assessment of one-year neurological outcome, a modified Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) was used. Results During the 6-year study period a total of 458 patients met the inclusion criteria. One-year mortality was higher in the paramedic-staffed EMS group: 57 % vs. 42 %. Also good neurological outcome was less common in patients treated in the paramedic-staffed EMS group. Discussion We found no significant difference between the study groups when considering the secondary brain injury associated vital signs on-scene. Also on arrival to ED, the proportion of hypotensive patients was similar in both groups. However, hypoxia was common in the patients treated by the paramedic-staffed EMS on arrival to the ED, while in the physician-staffed EMS almost none of the patients were hypoxic. Pre-hospital intubation by EMS physicians probably explains this finding. Conclusion The results suggest to an outcome benefit from physician-staffed EMS treating TBI patients. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT01454648

Maxillofacial trauma patients present with airway problems. Submandibular intubation is an effective means of intubation to avoid tracheostomy for operative procedures. Airway is secured with oral endotracheal intubation in paralyzed patient and tube is then transplaced in sub mental or submandibular region. However there may be instances when paralyzing such trauma patients is not safe and short term tracheostomy is the only airway channel available for conduction of anesthesia. We report a case of submandibular intubation in awake patient of maxillofacial trauma with anticipated intubation problems.

Background and Aims: Air-Q™ is a newly introduced airway device, which can be used to facilitate endotracheal intubation. The primary aim of this study was to assess whether use of two different endotracheal tubes (ETTs) (standard polyvinyl chloride [PVC] and reinforced PVC) increases the success rate of blind intubation through Air-Q™ (Group Q) when compared with intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA- Fastrach™ ) keeping ILMA as control (Group I). Methods: One hundred and twenty patients aged between 18 and 60 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I-II, undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia, were enrolled into this prospective, randomised, case-control study to compare the success rate of tracheal intubation between ILMA (Fastrach™ ) and Air-Q™ intubating laryngeal airway. Those patients with anticipated difficult airway were excluded from the study. All the recruited patients completed the study. Reinforced PVC ETT was used in both airway devices to secure intubation. Since standard PVC tube is recommended for use in Air-Q, when first intubation attempt failed, second or third attempt was made with standard PVC ETT. Total of three attempts were made for each procedure: Whereas in ILMA group, only reinforced tube was used in all three attempts. Results: The overall success rate after three attempts was more with Air-Q (96.6%) in our study compared with ILMA (91.6%) but no significant difference was seen between the groups (P = 0.43). Conclusion: The present study shows that when intubation with reinforced tube fails, the success rate with use of conventional PVC tube is more with Air-Q when compared with ILMA.

Knowledge regarding the shape, size, and variability of the cricoid ring is important to properly choose the correct endotracheal tube (ETT) in the pediatric patient. Studies have measured the size of the cricoid ring using methodologies such as moulages, magnetic resonance imaging, and video-bronchoscopy. In the present study, computed tomography (CT) -based images were used to determine the shape, size, and configuration of the cricoid ring in the pediatric population taking into considerations growth and development. This is a retrospective review using 130 CT images of children ranging in age from 1 month to 10 years undergoing radiological evaluation unrelated to airway symptomatology. The CT scans were obtained in spontaneously breathing patients during either natural sleep or procedural sedation. Anteroposterior (AP) and transverse (T) diameters were measured at the cricoid ring using these images. The cricoid ring is generally round in children older than 1 year with a T/AP ratio ranging between 0.98 and 1.01. However, in infants (1-12 months of age), the cricoid ring is elliptical with the AP dimension an average of 0.31 mm larger than the T dimension with a T/AP ratio of 0.95. A statistically significant difference between the T and AP dimensions was only observed in infancy ( < 0.05). The cricoid ring is round in children older than 1 year of age. In infants, the cricoid shape presents a more elliptical configuration because the T-axis is narrower than the AP dimension. CT is recognized as the most accurate technique to study cricoid ring configuration, and the present data may help clinicians determine the appropriate type, size, and shape of ETTs, particularly in infants.

PurposeEtomidate and ketamine are hemodynamically stable induction agents often used to sedate critically ill patients during emergency endotracheal intubation. In 2015, quality improvement data from our hospital suggested a survival benefit at Day 7 from avoidance of etomidate in critically ill patients during emergency intubation. In this clinical trial, we hypothesized that randomization to ketamine instead of etomidate would be associated with Day 7 survival after emergency endotracheal intubation.MethodsA prospective, randomized, open-label, parallel assignment, single-center clinical trial performed by an anesthesiology-based Airway Team under emergent circumstances at one high-volume medical center in the United States. 801 critically ill patients requiring emergency intubation were randomly assigned 1:1 by computer-generated, pre-randomized sealed envelopes to receive etomidate (0.2–0.3 mg/kg, n = 400) or ketamine (1–2 mg/kg, n = 401) for sedation prior to intubation. The pre-specified primary endpoint of the trial was Day 7 survival. Secondary endpoints included Day 28 survival.ResultsOf the 801 enrolled patients, 396 were analyzed in the etomidate arm, and 395 in the ketamine arm. Day 7 survival was significantly lower in the etomidate arm than in the ketamine arm (77.3% versus 85.1%, difference − 7.8, 95% confidence interval − 13, − 2.4, p = 0.005). Day 28 survival rates for the two groups were not significantly different (etomidate 64.1%, ketamine 66.8%, difference − 2.7, 95% confidence interval − 9.3, 3.9, p = 0.294).ConclusionWhile the primary outcome of Day 7 survival was greater in patients randomized to ketamine, there was no significant difference in survival by Day 28.