Development of an emergency airway response system for COVID-19 at a tertiary care hospital in resource limited country

Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) infection causes severe respiratory dysfunction and has become an emergent issue for worldwide healthcare due to highly transmissible and contagious nature. Aerosol generating procedures such as tracheal intubation is of particularly high risk. This mandates some advice on processes and techniques required to protect staff and uniform approach during airway management. We hereby share our experience in development of an emergency response system to deal with COVID airway management at a frontline hospital which particularly consider the local demands and resources. This includes a change in working dynamics with 24/7 consultant coverage for emergent or urgent tracheal intubation of COVID patients at non-operating room locations. Other steps include prepackaging intubation baskets, availability of videolaryngoscope, standard personal protective equipment including powered air purifying respirator, and use of modified intubation checklist.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.1.5689

How to cite this: Shamim F, Khan MF, Samad K, Latif A. Development of an emergency airway response system for COVID-19 at a tertiary care hospital in resource limited country. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(1):300-303. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.1.5689

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.