title: Airway management in the air medical setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Airway management is a key component of air medical care for seriously ill and injured patients. This meta-analysis of the prehospital airway management literature explored the pooled air-medical placement success rates for oral endotracheal intubation (OETI), including rapid sequence intubation (RSI) and drug-facilitated intubation (DFI), nasotracheal intubation (NTI), blind insertion airway devices (BIAD), and surgical cricothyrotomy (SCRIC).
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a systematic literature search for all English language articles reporting success rates for airway procedures performed in the prehospital setting. After identifying articles specific to the air-medical environment, pooled estimates of success rates for each airway technique were calculated using a random effects meta-analysis model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-six unique studies, encompassing 4,574 procedures, reported airway management success rates in the air medical environment. The pooled estimates (95% CI) for intervention success across all clinicians and patients were: OETI (without RSI/DFI): 86.4% (81.2%-90.3%); DFI: 95.1% (84.1%-98.6%); RSI: 96.7% (94.8%-97.9%); NTI: 76.1% (71.9%-79.9%); BIAD: 94.0% (85.8%-97.6%); and SCRIC: 90.8% (80.6%-95.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We provide pooled estimates for airway management procedural success rates in the air medical setting. These data can be used by program managers and medical directors in determining the most appropriate airway management procedures to incorporate into their services and for benchmarking in quality improvement activities.
authors.affiliation: Anton Breinl Centre for Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Lawrence.Brown@jcu.edu.au
authors.forename: Lawrence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Hubble
authors.forename: Denise A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Wilfong
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hertelendy
authors.forename: Randall W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Benner
mesh_terms: D017732:Air Ambulances; D058109:Airway Management; D006801:Humans