A comparison of the effectiveness of pre-hospital bag-valve-mask ventilation performed by Irish emergency medical technicians and anaesthetists working in a tertiary referral teaching hospital.
The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of bag-valve-mask ventilation performed by emergency medical technicians with prehospital clinical responsibilities and to compare this with anaesthetists working clinically in tertiary referral teaching hospitals. Participants were asked to perform bag-valve-mask ventilation for three minutes on a Resusi Anne manniquin using a facemask and a two litre self inflating bag. The tidal volumes generated were quantified using a Laerdal skillmeter computer as grades 0-5 corresponding to 0, 335, 434, 561, 673 and > 800 mls. The effectiveness of bag-valve-mask (i.e. the proportion of ventilation attempts which achieved a tidal volume of > 434 mls) was greater for emergency medical technicians [88.2 (17.1)%] than for anaesthetists [40.4 (36.5)%] (P<0.001). Six of the 27 anaesthetists, but none of the 29 emergency medical technicians, were unable to produce even one effective tidal volume i.e. > 434 mls. It is likely that emergency medical technicians are able to perform adequate bag-valve-mask ventilation.
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Waterford Regional Hospital, Ardkeen, Waterford, Ireland. kenwalsh@ireland.com
K
K
Walsh
K
K
Loveday
M
M
O'Rathaille
D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000592:standards*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008397:Masks / Q000592:standards*; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000295:instrumentation*