Prehospital Ultrasound Use to Guide Emergent Pericardiocentesis: A Case Report.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has been shown to be a valuable tool in the management of acutely ill patients in the prehospital setting. POCUS not only has utility from a diagnostic perspective but also has been shown to reduce the rate of complications from otherwise traditionally "blind" procedures, such as pericardiocentesis. This case report highlights the utility of POCUS in the prehospital setting to guide emergent pericardiocentesis to treat cardiac tamponade. The applicability of various approaches to ultrasound-guided pericardiocentesis is also discussed.

Prehospital Cardiac Ultrasound to Confirm Mechanical Capture in Emergency Transcutaneous Pacing: A Case Report.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a safe diagnostic tool that clinicians use to rapidly evaluate critically ill patients.1 POCUS has expanded into the prehospital setting and has been demonstrated to be accurate, feasible, and helpful in guiding clinical decision making.2-4 Additionally, the American College of Emergency Physicians recommends the use of echocardiography to evaluate for ventricular activity in the setting of cardiac arrest.5 There is minimal evidence regarding the use of POCUS to confirm mechanical capture in patients undergoing transcutaneous pacing. This case report highlights the use of POCUS in a patient with bradyasystolic cardiac arrest requiring transcutaneous pacing. Despite electrical capture, the patient had absent central pulses; however, POCUS demonstrated ventricular contractions, indicating mechanical capture. This suggests a role for POCUS for the evaluation of mechanical capture in patients undergoing cardiac pacing.

Association of Geographic Distance and Hospital Characteristics With Use of Interhospital Transfer by Air: A Multicenter Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: Interhospital transfer by air (IHTA) represents the majority of helicopter air ambulance transports in the United States, but the evaluation of what factors are associated with utilization has been limited. We aimed to assess the association of geographic distance and hospital characteristics (including patient volume) with the use of IHTA. METHODS: This was a multicenter, retrospective study of helicopter flight request data from 2018 provided by a convenience sample of 4 critical care transport medicine programs in 3 US census regions. Nonfederal referring hospitals located in the home state of the associated critical care transport medicine program and within 100 miles of the primary receiving facility in the region were included if complete data were available. We fit a Poisson principal component regression model incorporating geographic distance, the number of emergency department visits, the number of hospital discharges, case mix index, the number of intensive care unit beds, and the number of general beds and tested the association of the variables with helicopter emergency medical services utilization. RESULTS: A total of 106 referring hospitals were analyzed, 21 of which were hospitals identified as having a consistent request pattern. Using the hospitals with a consistent referral pattern, geographic distance had a significant positive association with flight request volume. Other variables, including emergency department visit volume, were not associated. Overall, the included variables offered poor explanatory power for the observed variation between referring facilities in the use of IHTA (r2 = 0.09). Predicted flights based on the principal component regression model for all referring hospitals suggested the majority of referring hospitals used multiple flight programs. CONCLUSION: Geographic distance is associated with the use of IHTA. Unexpectedly, most basic hospital characteristics are not associated with the use of IHTA, and the degree of variation between referring facilities that is explained by patient volume is limited. The evaluation of nonhospital factors, such as the density and availability of critical care or advanced life support ground emergency medical services resources, is needed.

Rapid Sequence Intubation Using the SEADUC Manual Suction Unit in a Contaminated Airway.

The case presented here highlights the utility/feasibility of the SEADUC (EM Innovations, Galloway, OH) manual suction unit in clearing a contaminated airway during rapid sequence intubation. The case also highlights the importance of intubation in a patient with declining mental status in the prehospital environment. A 75-year-old woman suffered a head injury, and a helicopter emergency medical service team staffed with a physician and nurse was tasked with retrieval and transfer back to the tertiary care center. As the flight team rendezvoused with ground emergency medical services and the patient, a decision to intubate was made because of the patient's declining mental status and inability to protect her own airway. While in preparation for intubation, it was noted that the ambulance's electrical suction system was not working, and the flight crew had to resort to a SEADUC manual suction unit to clear the patient's airway of contaminants. The patient's airway was cleared, and she was successfully intubated and transported to a tertiary care center where the patient underwent an emergent neurosurgery procedure/decompression and was discharged home a few weeks later.

Prehospital Ultrasound Use to Guide Resuscitative Thoracotomy in Blunt Traumatic Cardiac Arrest.

Traumatic cardiac arrest is frequently encountered in the air medical transport environment, and resuscitative thoracotomy is a procedure that is sometimes performed in an attempt to salvage these critically injured patients. Focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) is a point-of-care ultrasound protocol commonly used in trauma patients to detect the presence of free fluid in the intraperitoneal and pericardial spaces. The authors present a case of an adult female victim of a motor vehicle collision whose prehospital FAST scan revealed significant hemoperitoneum without hemopericardium. When she developed cardiac arrest, these ultrasound findings aided in the decision to perform resuscitative thoracotomy and helped guide the sequence of maneuvers with prioritization given to cross-clamping the aorta. This case highlights the utility of prehospital ultrasound in yielding timely, actionable diagnostic information that can inform the performance of a high-acuity low-occurrence procedure in the air medical transport environment.

Initiation of Inhaled Nitric Oxide by an Air Transport Team in Adult Coronavirus Disease 2019 Respiratory Failure.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant increase in the volume of critical care flight transports between outlying referral hospitals and tertiary care facilities. Because of the tropism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, flight crews are often asked to transport mechanically ventilated patients in refractory hypoxemic respiratory failure. The authors present a case series of 5 patients with COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who were initiated on inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) by the transport team before rotor wing transport and survived the journey in stable or improved condition upon arrival. Previously, no case reports have described adults with COVID-19 ARDS transported after iNO initiation by the transport team. This case series shows the feasibility of iNO initiation by trained air medical transport teams and suggests a short-term stabilizing effect of iNO in patients with ARDS from COVID-19.

Metabolic Emergency in Flight.

Young children with inborn errors of metabolism often present to medical care in extremis, although their symptoms can be nonspecific. Rare metabolic disorders are not always on the statewide newborn screening panels, so infants and children can present later in life with vomiting, altered mental status, seizures, coma, or death, without any indication prior of a metabolic disorder. Swift transport to a pediatric specialty center can be lifesaving and prevent neurologic damage in these patients while awaiting definitive testing for these genetic disorders. Transport of these patients is complicated because they are often critically ill yet do not respond normally to routine resuscitation. In this case, we describe the transport of a patient with a rare, undifferentiated inborn error of metabolism with a pediatric specialty flight team and the considerations made in resuscitation and treatment of this patient in flight.

Comparison of Hyperangulated and Standard Geometry Video Laryngoscopy Tracheal Intubation for Prehospital Care in a Manikin: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of hyperangulated video laryngoscopy (HAVL) versus standard geometry video laryngoscopy (SGVL) in the simulated prehospital environment using a manikin. There is consensus that video laryngoscopy (VL) can be very useful in the emergency department when difficult intubations are predicted. Emergency medical service (EMS) providers are also often faced with difficult, rapidly deteriorating airway management situations that not only involve patient and operator factors but also include challenging unique environmental factors, such as nonoptimized positions in transport vehicles (eg, helicopters and ambulances) or at ground level or entrapped positions. To our knowledge, there has never been a study purposefully investigating the efficacy of hyperangulated geometry versus standard geometry VL techniques in the prehospital environment. METHODS: A single-center, randomized controlled crossover trial was performed using attending physician helicopter EMS providers. Physicians were randomized to perform 5 HAVL or SGVL intubations followed by the subsequent technique. Intubations were performed on ground level and then repeated in the helicopter with the first location also randomized. A manikin airway management trainer was used to simulate intubation in each environment. The time to intubation (primary outcome) as well as first-pass success and the Cormack-Lehane view were recorded for each attempt. Qualitative data were also obtained for physician preference and perceived difficulty. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in the time to intubation with HAVL versus SGVL (ground: 15.02 vs. 14.88 seconds, P = .86; helicopter: 16.11 vs. 16.14 seconds, P = .93). First-pass success was 100% for both techniques in both scenarios. More Grade 1 views were obtained with HAVL (147/150 vs. 134/150). Moreover, most physicians preferred HAVL overall and felt that HAVL required less force (9/15 grounded manikin and 10/15 helicopter manikin) and led to the best chance for first-pass success (11/15 grounded manikin and 10/15 helicopter manikin). CONCLUSION: The results of this study are limited because of the static and highly favorable anatomy of a manikin versus the variability and often difficult anatomy of individual patients. Our results suggest that both techniques are efficacious when the patient is both on the ground or in the helicopter, although provider preference does seem to vary.

Prehospital Echocardiogram Use in Identifying Massive Pulmonary Embolism in Unidentified Respiratory Failure.

Medical transport teams often handle cases of complex, critically ill patients and are in need of rapid, bedside assessments to guide clinical decision making. The use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) as a diagnostic indicator has gained increased acceptance in emergency medicine. Ultrasound devices have become increasingly portable, and numerous studies have demonstrated that use in the prehospital setting is feasible, accurate, and can have a dramatic impact on the care of patients. In this case report, we highlight the use of handheld ultrasound in the identification of right heart dilation in an unstable patient with respiratory failure in a rural emergency department, concerning for massive pulmonary embolism. The patient was given thrombolytic therapy with dramatic clinical improvement, ultimately surviving transport to the intensive care unit at a nearby tertiary care center.

Tranexamic Acid Use in Pediatric Hemorrhagic Shock From Farm-Related Trauma: A Case Report.

This case describes the use of tranexamic acid as an adjunctive treatment in the management of a pediatric patient in hemorrhagic shock. The case also highlights other components of current best practices for hemorrhagic shock in children, including bleeding source control and prompt resuscitation with blood products. A 20-month old male suffered an agricultural accident with significant injury to the right upper extremity. This led to subsequent extremity hemorrhage and clinical evidence of hemorrhagic shock. As a result of interventions performed by emergency medical services as well as the helicopter emergency medical services team, including the application of a tourniquet, prehospital blood product administration, and tranexamic acid administration, the patient had hemodynamically stabilized by arrival at the level 1 pediatric trauma center and was neurologically intact when discharged from the hospital.

A Model Curriculum for a Helicopter Emergency Medicine Services (HEMS) Rotation for Resident Physicians.

Audience: This curriculum is designed for resident physicians at all levels of training who have an interest in HEMS. Length of Curriculum: This curriculum is designed to run over a 28-day period. Introduction: Helicopter emergency medicine services play a critical role in patient transport, and resident physicians may often encounter patients transported by HEMS programs. Residents, and emergency medicine residents in particular, are being offered more opportunities to gain flight experience with HEMS programs; however, these experiences may be highly variable. These inconsistencies in training experiences may lead to incomplete understanding of HEMS systems and patient care performed during flight. Educational Goals: The primary objective of this course is to present a standardized curriculum which allows learners to gain understanding of HEMS systems and retrieval medicine while practicing safety in the aviation environment. Educational Methods: The educational strategies used in this curriculum include hands-on training with senior flight staff, asynchronous learning via access to a curated reading "library," and in-person learning via ride-along experience on the aircraft and program operational meeting attendance. Research Methods: This curriculum was introduced at the authors' institution and was completed by 11 rotating resident physicians, primarily PGY-2 and PGY-3 emergency medicine residents. Learners completed free-form feedback forms as well as a numerically graded post rotation survey. Learner feedback was used to identify areas where additional instruction was necessary and make changes to optimize learner flight experience. Results: The curriculum was graded by learners on a 5-point Likert scale. The statement of "My overall educational experience during the rotation met my expectations and the learning objectives outlined at the beginning of the rotation" received an average score of 4.7 based on 1-Disagree to 5-Completely agree. The statement "The longitudinal curriculum contributed to my learning" averaged 4.5. A score of 4.9 was given for the statement "I found the rotation to be of use in my emergency medicine training." Free-form feedback was also solicited by learners and included comments such as "It was helpful for me to spend some time in the airway [and procedure] lab and go through the shift topics." Discussion: As evidenced by the learner feedback and survey results, the curriculum was effective in meeting the designed educational objectives, and learner feedback was largely positive in nature. Utilizing dedicated daily teaching topics was key to providing a standardized learning experience and ensuring that education progressed without reliance on flight call volumes. Topics: Helicopter aviation safety, HEMS crew member operations, retrieval medicine, advanced trauma care, advanced airway management, ventilator management, HEMS program operations.

Troubleshooting Hypoxemia After Placement of an Extraglottic Airway.

The case presented here highlights the feasibility of using an extraglottic airway device as a conduit for delivering high levels of lifesaving positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP), as well as other means of combating recalcitrant hypoxia. The case also highlights the merit of an approach to the hypoxic patient with an in-situ extraglottic airway device based not only on deciding if the device is functioning to maintain a patent airway, but also, simultaneously considering the patient's physiology. A 71 year old male suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Part of his resuscitation included placement of a dual-balloon extraglottic airway device by EMS. He was hypoxic, but the device seemed to be providing for a patent airway without an air leak. There was also a favorable end-tidal carbon dioxide waveform. The flight team chose to the leave the device in place. PEEP was up-titrated to 17 cmH20 without issue. Sigh breaths, as well as breath holds, were also able to be delivered. The patient's hypoxia improved over the course of the patient's transport, and he ultimately did well.