Airway management and assisted ventilation in an emergency

Extract

• Respiratory insufficiency is managed by ensuring a patent airway and assisting ventilation. The most common causes of loss of airway patency and/or respiratory insufficiency are cardiac arrest, impaired consciousness or critical respiratory distress.
• The simplest way to ensure airway patency and to assist ventilation is to open the airway manually and to start assisting ventilation using a bag-mask attached to oxygen.
• The airway must be kept patent and maintained using an airway device, such as an oropharyngeal (oral) or supraglottic airway, an endotracheal tube or by an emergency tracheotomy.
  • An oral airway can be used initially for assisted ventilation with a bag-mask.
  • A supraglottic device should be used as the primary airway device DynaMed PlusE.
    • Intubation can be used as the primary method of airway management if there is an experienced intubator present with a high probability of success.
• For emergency tracheotomy i.e. cricothyrotomy, see videos Cricothyrotomy using an intubation tube (emergency tracheotomy)1 and Cricothyrotomy using a Mini-Trach cannula (emergency tracheotomy)2.

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