New method cuts emergency airway surgery

BALTIMORE, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say keeping a cart of supplies and medicines handy reduces the need for emergency airway surgery for hard-to-intubate patients.

When patients undergo general anesthesia, they stop breathing, requiring anesthesiologists to quickly insert a tube into the airway as a first step in machine-assisted breathing. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore say they have developed a protocol designed to help physicians quickly treat such anesthetized patients that has dramatically reduced the need for high-risk emergency surgical procedures to open obstructed airways.

Dr. Lauren Berkow, one of the study's leaders, said the simple program consists of a rolling cart equipped with most supplies and medications a physician would need to navigate a difficult airway and restart breathing.

"It seems an obvious solution, but it's not what people are used to doing," said Berkow, an assistant professor of anesthesiology. "People had to run to five different places to get the right equipment. The stakes are pretty high. Oxygen is vital. Time is of the essence. You want to make sure you have everything you need and know how to use it when that patient with an emergency rolls through the door."

The study is to appear in the December issue of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.