Advancing emergency airway management practice and research

Abstract

Emergency airway management is one of the vital resuscitative procedures undertaken in the emergency department (ED). Despite its clinical and research importance in the care of critically ill and injured patients, earlier studies have documented suboptimal intubation performance and high adverse event rates with a wide variation across the EDs. The optimal emergency airway management strategies remain to be established and their dissemination to the entire nation is a challenging task. This article reviews the current published works on emergency airway management with a focus on the use of airway management algorithms as well as the importance of first-pass success and systematic use of rescue intubation strategies. Additionally, the review summarizes the current evidence for each of the important airway management processes, such as assessment of the difficult airway, preparation (e.g., positioning and oxygenation), intubation methods (e.g., rapid sequence intubation), medications (e.g., premedications, sedatives, and neuromuscular blockades), devices (e.g., direct and video laryngoscopy and supraglottic devises), and rescue intubation strategies (e.g., airway adjuncts and rescue intubators), as well as the airway management in distinct patient populations (i.e., trauma, cardiac arrest, and pediatric patients). Well-designed, rigorously conducted, multicenter studies that prospectively and comprehensively characterize emergency airway management should provide clinicians with important opportunities for improving the quality and safety of airway management practice. Such data will not only advance research into the determination of optimal airway management strategies but also facilitate the development of clinical guidelines, which will, in turn, improve the outcomes of critically ill and injured patients in the ED.