Pre-Hospital Advanced Airway Management in the Nordic Countries

Pre-Hospital Advanced Airway Management (PHAAM) is a potentially lifesaving intervention. A recent meta-analysis of >15.000 patients reported a variation in the prehospital endotracheal intubation (PHETI) success rate with different methods used and provider background. A recent prehospital study from London revealed a significantly higher intubation failure rate among non-anaesthesiologist physicians. In Scandinavia different types of emergency medical services (EMS) and professionals provide PHAAM. The success rate of PHETI, incidence of difficult intubation and complications in the Nordic countries is not known. Although the EMS structure in Scandinavia is reasonably similar, there are some inter- and intra-national differences regarding mission profile, staffing, systems for dispatch and on-scene management. A Danish PHAAM study demonstrated a 99,7% anaesthesiologist PHETI success rate with a 7,9% complication rate. The authors concluded the study was from a homogenous Danish system limiting the ability to generalise the findings to other systems with different staffing, caseload or case mix.

The PHAST investigators aim to provide prospective multicentre data on the pre-hospital intubation success rate and complications in the Nordic countries. Additionally the investigators will compare the PHAAM procedure for different subgroups of patients, regions and EMS organisations.

In the PHAST observational study twelve Nordic (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) Helicopter and Rapid Response Emergency Medical Services will include patients during 18 months. The decision to perform PHAAM is based on the discretion of prehospital provider. The PHAAM core data will be prospectively collected according the template by Sollid et al.

The primary endpoint is PHETI success on ≤2 attempts and no complications. Secondary endpoints include overall PHETI success rate, PHETI success on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and >3rd attempt, difficult PHETI, success rate of laryngeal mask and surgical airway, PHAAM complications and prehospital mortality.

Through predefined analysis of the data, the PHAST investigators hope to

• Describe the characteristics and outcome of advanced prehospital airway management.
• Identify which groups of critically injured or ill patients will benefit most from competent advanced prehospital airway management, and identify specific areas for future research.

Inclusion criteria

All patients requiring prehospital advanced airway management (PHAAM) by the Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Ground EMS (GEMS) units in the study. PHAAM includes endotracheal intubation, supraglottic airway and percutaneous/surgical airway. The indications for performing PHAAM as categorised by Sollid et al. are

• Decreased level of consciousness
• Hypoxemia
• Ineffective ventilation
• Existing airway obstruction
• Impending airway obstruction
• Combative or uncooperative patient
• Relief of pain or distress
• Cardiopulmonary arrest
• Other

Exclusion criteria

• Patients receiving advanced airway management during so-called secondary missions (or inter-hospital transfer)