Bouncing Back from the Beach – Cutting to Air to secure an Emergency Surgical Airway
Summary by: Thomas Dolven
To handle airways means being prepared to handle them all the way. You need to be prepared for a cannot intubate cannot oxygenate CICO scenario. The common, final end point of airway management in a is the emergency surgical airway, the cricothyroidotomy.
So how to prepare?
Often, it is not being taught right. This is a rare procedure under high stress and time sensitive. And most importantly, it is a bloody procedure that will be blind. You cannot use your eyes. So it needs a simple technique without fine motor skills, and it must be tactile. Your finger is the perfect tool for this task, and will guide you through it. The video of my personal real world experience is backed by available empirical evidence and lab training. There will never be an RCT, this is the best evidence we will have. So read NAPP4 and the case series article on the scalpel-finger-tube technique.
Read these available articles, train, and remember these two key points:
1) There will be blood. But that’s OK, because.
2) Your finger can see.
