Supraglottic Airways; Roadside to Resus
So in this episode we’re going to have a deeper think about advanced airway management and specifically supraglottic use in the prehospital and ED environment. Many prehospital service have seen the removal of intubation from their scope of practice, and that’s understandably been received with mixed thoughts. But this isn’t the end of ‘expert advanced airway care for all; in fact far, far from it… we’ve all heard people talking about ‘whacking in an i-gel’, but really utilising a supraglottic device to its maximal potential can make a huge difference to our critically unwell patients. We'll be running through an overview of supraglottic devices, the evidence surrounding their use, patient selection, patient positioning and size selection, placing a supraglottic device, troubleshooting and finally ongoing ventilation with a supraglottic device. We'd love to hear any comments or feedback you have and make sure to take a look at the references and resources below. Enjoy! Simon, Rob & James