nextgen learning designed to elevate your airway practice
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What is the best airway strategy in cardiac arrest? How to we integrate it seamlessly into our ongoing cardiac resuscitation? We go into it all here. Getting started is as easy as scrolling down.👇
- When to Intubate in Cardiac Arrest
- The Role of Supraglottic Devices
- Intubation During Chest Compressions
- Airway & Mechanical CPR
Wait! How are you going to check that tube?
What is the best strategy? There’s a simple device that can help you. Listen here👆
Minimally invasive Airway Management
One thing is clear, your approach to airway management while compressions are ongoing should be minimally invasive. In other words what you do should never interfere with high quality chest compressions. You can do this in a number of ways:
- Intubation is NOT required
- Start with BVM with a good seal
- Optimize with jaw thrust OPA/NPA
- Place supraglottic airway
- NEVER ask your team to pause compressions for any placement of an airway device
Provide Good airway hygiene
Don’t make things worse
Just because you’re not placing an endotracheal tube doesn’t mean the role of airway management in cardiac arrest isn’t vital. Good airway hygiene during cardiac arrest is not simply avoiding any interruption of chest compressions, but also being fastidious about what it is you do:
- Suction airway contamination
- Remove airway obstructions
- Work with compressions & pauses
- Do not impede venous return:
- Keep RR rate low
- Keep bag pressures low
Good airway hygiene is frequently lacking during cardiac arrests. It’s your job to clean it up! Make sure you and the airway team keep the airway patent, suction, and avoid aggressive bagging and stomach insufflation, and don’t impede venous return by over-inflation of the lungs.
hands on training
- Look for this tabletop card
- Snap the QR code
- Begin your practice
If you’re in one of our pop-up learning spaces or a PAC Live!! event, find this care and, use the multimedia tools for a guided practice training experience.
Don’t forget to engage our faculty coaches for real-time expert feedback.
Additional reading
Want to go a little deeper into this topic? Here’s a great summary of recent research by PulmCCM.
Congratulations on completing this learning space! You could stop here, but why would you want to? Look for more Situationally Difficult Airway (SDA) learning spaces and add another bundle of concepts, tools, and skills your airway tool box 🧰
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