Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• High, Kevin
• Brywczynski, Jeremy
• Han, Jin H.

Titel

Cricothyrotomy in Helicopter Emergency Medical Service Transport

Ist Teil von

• Air medical journal, 2018-01, Vol.37 (1), p.51-53

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •We examine the use of cricothyrotomy in the air medical environment by flight nurses and paramedics.•We report on a series of 13 patients who underwent cricothyrotomy and review their characteristics and outcome.•Background, frequency, and techniques regarding cricothyrotomy are covered. Airway management is a requisite skill set for helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) providers. Cricothyrotomy is a potentially lifesaving skill that is used when other airway maneuvers fail. The authors reviewed all transports by a helicopter program in which cricothyrotomy was performed to assess the frequency, success, and technique. This was a retrospective chart review of air medical patient records from an electronic medical record system over a 112-month period. During the study period, 22,434 patients were transported, 13 (.057%) of whom underwent cricothyrotomy. The typical patient was a male trauma victim with a mean Glasgow Coma Score of 5 transported from an accident scene with a mean age of 34.3 years. Six (46%) of the patients were alive at 24 hours. All patients (13/100%) received attempted endotracheal intubation; the mean number of attempts per patient was 2. The success rate was 100% with all patients ventilated via cricothyrotomy. This study shows cricothyrotomy is a rarely performed skill but that HEMS providers are able to successfully learn the skill with proper training and oversight.