Prehospital Use of the Esophageal Tracheal Combitube Supraglottic Airway Device: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: In the province of Quebec (Canada), paramedics use the esophageal tracheal Combitube (ETC) for prehospital airway management. OBJECTIVES: Our main objective was to determine the proportion of patients with successful ventilation achieved after ETC use. Our secondary aim was to determine the number of ETC insertion attempts required to ventilate the patient. METHOD: This is a retrospective cohort study. All patients who had ≥1 attempt to insert an ETC during prehospital care between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018 were included. Prehospital and in-hospital data were extracted. Successful ventilation was defined as thorax elevation, lung sounds on chest auscultation, or positive end-tidal capnography after ETC insertion. RESULTS: A total of 580 emergency medical services interventions (99.3% cardiac arrests) were included. Most patients were men (62.5%) with a mean age 67.0 years (SD 17.6 years), and 35 (13.1%) of the 298 patients transported to emergency department survived to hospital discharge. Sufficient information to determine whether ventilation was successful or not was available for 515 interventions. Ventilation was achieved during 427 (82.7%) of these interventions. The number of ETC insertion attempts was available for 349 of the 427 successful ETC use. Overall, the first insertion resulted in successful ventilation during 294 interventions for an overall proportion of first-pass success ranging between 57.1% and 72.1%. CONCLUSION: Proportions of successful ventilation and ETC first-pass success are lower than those reported in the literature with supraglottic airway devices. The reasons explaining these lower rates and their impact on patient-centered outcomes need to be studied.

Continuous flow insufflation of oxygen compared with manual ventilation during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A survey of the paramedics.

INTRODUCTION: In 2018, a continuous flow insufflation of oxygen (CFIO) device (b-card™, Vygon (USA)) placed on a supraglottic airway (SGA) became the standard of care to ventilate patients during adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) care in Quebec-Capitale-Nationale region, Canada. This study aims to assess the paramedics' perception as well as the disadvantages and the benefits relative to the use of CFIO during OHCA management. METHODS: An invitation to complete an online survey (Survey Monkey™) was sent to all 560 paramedics who are working in our region. The survey included 22 questions of which 9 aimed to compare the traditional manual ventilation with a bag to the CFIO using a 5-point Likert-type scale. RESULTS: A total of 244 paramedics completed the survey, of which 189 (77.5%) had used the CFIO device during an OHCA at least once. Most respondents felt that the intervention was faster (70.2%) and easier (86.5%) with the CFIO device compared with manual ventilation. CFIO was also associated with perceived increased patient safety (64.4%) as well as paramedic safety during the evacuation (88.9%) and the ambulance transport (88.9%). Paramedics reported that physical (48.1%) and cognitive (52.9%) fatigue were also improved with CFIO. The main reported barriers were the bending of the external SGA tube and the loss of capnography values. CONCLUSION: The use of CFIO during adult OHCA care allows a simplified approach and was perceived as safer for the patient and the paramedics compared with manual ventilation. Its impact on patient-centred outcomes needs to be assessed.