Weekly Article: Preoxygenation and RSI

Originally sent by Dave

This week we have an article and blog of the week.

This is an EM blog from Australia and has fantastic education tidbits and resources.

http://lifeinthefastlane.com/

Reading this blog, I found a rave review of the attached article.  And after reading it I agree!

Attached is a review article from the March 2012 Annals on “Preoxygenation in Airway Management”

There is wide disparity in the way people preoxygenate in RSI….which I have always found interesting.

This article highlights a few IMPORTANT concepts for preoxygenation, such as:

--should I use a nasal canula in addition to mask (NC can stay in place during intubation attempts)?

--how long should I preoxygenate?

--in what position should I preoxygenate?....supine may not be ideal

--the role of BVM and risk for inducing vomiting?

--the role of cricoid pressure?

--using CPAP vs. NRB?

The article challenges many traditional preoxygenation sequences and provides good reasoning to justify its recommendations.