Trends in Anasthesia and Critical Care
Trends in Anasthesia and Critical Care
Trends in Anasthesia and Critical Care
REVIEW
s u m m a r y
Keywords:
Airway
Anaesthesia
Resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary
Ventilation
To provide an up-to-date review on drugs and airway management equipment required in anaesthesia
for pre-hospital and in-hospital emergencies. Current literature is reviewed and reasonable approaches
are discussed. Preoxygenation should be performed with high-ow oxygen delivered through a tight
tting face mask connected with a reservoir. Ketamine may be the induction agent of choice in haemodynamically unstable patients. Sugammadex, a rocuronium antagonist, may have the potential to
make rocuronium the rst-line neuromuscular blocking agent in emergency induction. Experienced
healthcare providers may consider pre-hospital anaesthesia induction; lesser experienced healthcare
providers should refrain from endotracheal intubation, but optimise oxygenation, hasten hospital
transfer and ventilate patients only in life-threatening circumstances with a bagevalveemask device or
a supraglottic airway. Senior help should be sought early.
In the hospital, with an expected difcult airway breoptic awake intubation should be performed.
With a not difcult airway, airway management according to the rescuers skills should be attempted. In
a cannot ventilate, cannot intubate situation, a supraglottic airway should be used and, if ventilation is
still unsuccessful, a surgical airway should be achieved. Capnography should be used in every ventilated
patient. Continuous clinical practice is essential to retain anaesthesia and airway management skills.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In France, airway management-experienced emergency physicians had problems in only approximately 3% of pre-hospital
intubations. On the contrary, in Miami, paramedics encountered
intubation difculties in approximately 30% of patients, and were
not able to intubate 10%.3 Similarly, a study4 in San Francisco
reported endotracheal tubes being misplaced oesophageally or
being dislocated in 15 children, 14 of these children died. As
a consequence, the authors recommended paramedics to refrain
from intubating children. In a German study on pre-hospital intubations performed by emergency medical system (EMS) physicians
with widely varying airway management skills, a 15% rate of
oesophageally or bronchially positioned tubes was reported.
Mortality rate in patients with oesophageally misplaced tubes was
80% as compared with 20% for the overall study cohort.5 Some
argue, that a worse outcome in a number of studies is attributable
to inexperienced personnel and endotracheal intubation without
neuromuscular block.6 Recently, the Association of Anaesthetists of
Great Britain and Ireland recommended pre-hospital anaesthesia
only for appropriately trained and competent practitioners.7 An
Australian and a US-American study heated the debate when they
showed improved outcome in critically brain injured patients with
2210-8440/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tacc.2012.01.002
110
Table 1
Devices for oxygenation and preoxygenation. Oxygen ow (L min1) and resulting
inspiratory oxygen fraction (FiO2) are given.
Oxygenation device
O2 L min1
FiO2
Nasal cannula
Face mask
Face mask with reservoir
Anaesthesia bag-valve mask device
Anaesthesia bag-valve mask device
with reservoir
1e6
8e10
6e10
12
12
24e44%
40e60%
60e100%
50%
100%
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Table 2
Indications, side effects and doses of commonly used intravenous analgetics, modied from:27
Analgetic
Indications
Side effects
Dose
Fentanyl
Respiratory depression
Cardiocirculatory depression
Supercial anaesthesia
Tachycardia and arterial hypertension
Respiratory depression
Cardiocirculatory depression
Ketamine
Sufentanyl
Keep in mind that, a medical emergency is not an opportunity for testing new drugs or techniques. Emergency
patients are too sick to tolerate errors made by inexperienced rescuers
Table 3
Indications, side effects and doses of commonly used intravenous hypnotics, modied from:27.
Hypnotic
Indications
Side effects
Dose
Etomidate
Supercial anaesthesia
Inhibitory effect on steroid genesis;
avoid in septic patients
Slow onset
Supercial anaesthesia
Midazolam
Propofol
Thiopental
Arterial hypotension
112
One should keep in mind that too many patients still die
because of failed oxygenation, mostly related to cases of
failed endotracheal intubation. Thus, in medical emergencies one of the most prioritised aims should be adequate
oxygenation instead of repeated endotracheal intubation
attempts
113
Acknowledgements
12. Conclusion
Preoxygenation should be performed with high-ow oxygen
delivered through a tight tting face mask connected with a reservoir. Ketamine may be the induction agent of choice in haemodynamically unstable patients. Sugammadex, a rocuronium
antagonist, may have the potential to make rocuronium a rst-line
neuromuscular blocking agent in emergency induction. Experienced healthcare providers may consider pre-hospital anaesthesia
induction.
Lesser experienced healthcare providers should refrain from
endotracheal intubation, optimise oxygenation, hasten hospital
transfer and ventilate patients only in life-threatening circumstances with a bagevalveemask device or a supraglottic airway.
Senior help should be sought early. In a cannot ventilate cannot
intubate situation, a supraglottic airway should be employed and, if
ventilation is still unsuccessful, a surgical airway should be performed. Capnography should be used in every ventilated patient.
Clinical practice is essential to retain anaesthesia and airway
management skills.
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