Respiratory emergencies come in many forms. It could be an asthmatic who has suffered since childhood, a COPD patient who still smokes a pack a day, or a near-drowning who was pulled from the deep end of the pool. Whatever the crisis, as an emergency responder, you are called on to treat it. 

As a paramedic or EMT, your first responsibility in patient care is to secure a patent airway. Whether you are placing an EOA to elevate the tongue of an overdosed patient, suctioning the oropharynx of a trauma code, or inserting an endotracheal tube for a patient who has stopped breathing, a thorough understanding of the structures that make up the respiratory tract is a must. 

Advanced airway management goes beyond simple techniques you might learn in a single class. Advanced airway techniques fall into three broad categories, each with various techniques and skills a practitioner must master. 

Pregnant patients exhibit various unique characteristics that first responders must account for during treatment.

A significant challenge responders encounter when treating pregnant women is navigating difficult airway anatomy and possible risks during airway management. The rate of failed intubation in pregnant patients is four to eight times higher than in nonpregnant patients, and this is largely due to anatomical changes, hormone production, and aspiration risks that occur during pregnancy.

The ABCs of patient care begin with the airway. Does your patient have airway patency? Can your patient maintain their airway? Are there any obstructions or contaminants obstructing the airway? Questions like these are likely second nature to you, and you probably don’t even realize you are asking them when caring for your patients.

Users of battery powered portable suction devices often comment that it “sucks”. This can be interpreted two ways – either negatively or positively. When the negative sentiment applies, there’s no need to despair or throw the unit across the room

There are three ways to increase the performance of your portable suction device to turn that negative into a positive.

While it may seem like a minor consideration to some, EMS providers know that patient positioning plays a crucial role in the quality, safety and effectiveness of medical treatment. An article from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation states that patient positioning is 90% of the airway management battle.

Spinal cord injuries are devastating events. In the U.S., most are the result of automobile collisions, but falls, penetrating injuries, and blunt trauma can also cause injury to the spinal cord, leading to a respiratory emergency. It is estimated that there are more than 18,000 spinal cord injuries each year in the U.S. When the injuries involve the cervical vertebrae, specifically the midsection (C3 through C5), they can disrupt the phrenic nerve, which controls the movement of the diaphragm, rendering the patient unable to breathe on their own.

Over the years, anesthesia has become increasingly common in most surgical procedures — even minor ones. In fact,  approximately 40 million surgical procedures utilize an anesthetic each year. Some procedures, such as dental extractions and implants, require anesthesia, regardless of the patient’s preference. 

We all know the key to a thorough patient assessment is to approach it systematically so that we don’t become distracted (by that bleeding scalp wound) or skip steps that may yield valuable information (like listening to breath sounds). There’s a reason we are all taught “head-to-toe” surveys: so that we work our way through essential assessment points, avoiding a haphazard exam where key signs are missed.