Successful Surgical Airway Performance in the Combat Prehospital Setting: A Qualitative Study of Experienced Military Prehospital Providers
Abstract
Military first responders are in a unique category of the healthcare delivery system. They range in skill sets from combat medic and corpsman to nurses, physician assistants, and occasionally, doctors. Airway obstruction is the second leading cause of preventable battlefield death, and the decision for intervention to obtain an airway depends on the casualty's presentation, the provider's comfort level, and the available equipment, among many other variables. In the civilian prehospital setting cricothyroidotomy (cric) success rates are over 90% but, in the US, military combat environment success rates range from 0-82%. This discrepancy in success rates may be due to training, environment, equipment, patient factors and/or a combination of these. Many presumed causes have been assumed to be the root of the variability, but no research has been conducted evaluating the first-person point of view. This research study is focused on interviewing military first responders with real-life combat placement of a surgical airway to identify the underlying influences that contribute to their perception of success or failure.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 18, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1212247
Entities
People
- Timothy B. Pekari
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences