Exploring Emergency Airway Management: A Collaboration between UIW-SOM, BAMC, & CHRISTUS Health-Texas A&M

By: Sikandar (Alex) Khan (OMS-II); UIW-SOM

April 2024

Emergency airway management is a crucial skill in emergency medicine and anesthesia. The first part of the “ABCs” emphasizes the importance of mastering this skill. To offer medical students with interest in these fields early hands-on experience, I organized an emergent airway seminar for the UIWSOM emergency medicine interest group (EMIG) in collaboration with the anesthesia interest group (AIG). We also collaborated with EM residents and faculty from the Brooks Army Medical Center and Texas A&M Corpus Christi Spohn program.

The seminar started with our very own and world-renowned ENT surgeon, Dr. G. Richard Holt, giving a short presentation on the importance of emergent airways, as well as the various kinds available. He shared his expertise and passion for managing these airways at one of the four stations held in the seminar as well. At his station, he demonstrated how a cricothyrotomy was done on a sim model with a removable skin flap. While Dr. Holt’s station was purely observation, it drew quite the interest amongst the students, who were left wanting to stay at his station longer than the rotations allowed.

The following station, run by EMPA Darron Fritz (BAMC), continued on this key fundamental of emergent airways, but without the video aspect. He demonstrated to the learners the utility of knowing this skill first before using video guided intubations and had them practice on half models with various types of glidescopes and BVMs. His expert guidance allowed the learners to learn this technique and build their confidence for future practice.

In airway management, video visualization is key in helping the physician place the airway properly and can also be helpful to learners by providing real time feedback. The video guided intubation station taught by Dr. Kyle Smiley from the BAMC residency and our own emergency medicine physician Dr. Robert Allen. At their station, they demonstrated proper glidescope utilization and intubation techniques using the video guided systems.

The final station was run completely by the Corpus Christi EM residents Dr. Justin Hacnik, Dr. Kate Spencer, and Dr. Monica Campa. They discussed various pre-hospital and contaminated airway topics such as the utility of oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal devices, as well as the use of the Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination (SALAD) with bougies.

The seminar ran for a few hours and learners stayed after to continue learning and practicing at all four stations. It was rewarding to see the joy on every participant's face as they gained this hands-on experience and knowledge. We want to thank each and every faculty member who helped set this clinic up, including our simulation center for providing the models and tools necessary to make this seminar so successful.