2020 Airway Article of the Year Awarded to Mosier J, et. al.

Airway Management Education Center, the creators of The Difficult Airway Course™, hosted the ninth annual “Airway Article of the Year” award show as a live webinar on December 17, 2020.  Webinar host, Calvin Brown III, MD presented three articles as finalists.  The nominees were selected from among all the articles covered during the Airway Management Research Update webinars held in 2020.  The content and merits of each article were presented, and the winner was chosen by a vote of the on-line audience during the show.  The recorded show is available at www.airwayworld.com/webinars and as a podcast on iTunes.

The 2020 Nominees

The nominees for this honor were:

• Driver B. et al. Comparing Emergency Department First-Attempt Intubation Success with Standard-Geometry and Hyperangulated Video Laryngoscopes. Ann Emerg Med. 2020 Sep;76(3):332-338.

• Mohr N., et al. Etomidate Use is Associated with Less Hypotension than Ketamine for Emergency Department Sepsis Intubations: A NEAR Cohort Study. Acad Emerg Med. 2020 Nov;27(11):1140-1149.

• Mosier J. et al. Time to Loss of Preoxygenation in Emergency Department Patients. J Emerg Med. 2020 Nov;59(5):637-642.

The 2020 Winner

The winner of the 2020 “Airway Article of the Year” is Time to Loss of Preoxygenation in Emergency Department Patients by Jarrod Mosier MD, Robert F. Reardon MD, Paige A. DeVries BS, Jamie L. Stang BS, Ashley Nelson BA, Matthew E. Prekker MD and Brian E. Driver MD.

In this study, researchers investigated the elapsed time between removal of oxygen sources and the loss of preoxygenation among non-critically ill patients in the emergency department.  They found the median time to loss of preoxygenation to be 4.5 breaths (20 sec) with all devices removed, and 8 breaths (2 min) when nasal cannula was left in place.  This suggests that during RSI in the emergency department, preoxygenation devices should be left in place until the patient is completely apneic.

“When performing emergency airway management, you are responsible for the patient in front of you,” says Dr. Brown.  Removing oxygen sources before the patient is apneic results in loss of the oxygen reservoir you worked hard to build up.  The takeaway from this article, according to Dr. Brown, is to “make sure the patient is completely apneic before removing oxygen sources.  That precious oxygen reservoir depletes quickly if the patient breathes room air.”

Dr. Mosier’s study resonated with the audience, who selected the article for this honor.  Congratulations to all involved!

The “Airway Article of the Year” award show and Quarterly Airway Management Research Update webinars can be viewed on Airway World at www.airwayworld.com/webinars.  Both are also available as podcasts on Airway World or in the iTunes Store (Airway World Podcasts).  Questions about Airway World or the Quarterly Airway Management Research Updates can be sent to Terry T. Steele at tsteele@theairwaysite.com.