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Review
. 2020 Jun 15;21(4):809-812.
doi: 10.5811/westjem.2020.5.47540.

Recommendations for Prehospital Airway Management in Patients with Suspected COVID-19 Infection

James Hart  1 , Rebecca Tracy  1 , Matthew Johnston  1 , Sara Brown  2 , Connor Stephenson  3 , Jason Kegg  1   4 , James Waymack  1
Affiliations
Review

Recommendations for Prehospital Airway Management in Patients with Suspected COVID-19 Infection

James Hart et al. West J Emerg Med. .

Abstract

In light of the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and hospitals nationwide have developed new protocols to address infection control as well as the care of critical patients. Airway management has been particularly difficult; the challenge of quickly establishing an airway in patients must be balanced by the risk of aerosolizing respiratory secretions and putting the provider at risk of infection. Significant attention has been given to developing protocols for the emergency department and critical care units, but little guidance regarding establishing airway and respiratory support for patients in the prehospital setting has been made available. While some of the recommendations can be extrapolated from hospital guidelines, other factors such as environment and available resources make these protocols unfeasible. Through review of current literature the authors established recommendations regarding airway management and the provision of respiratory support to patients developing respiratory failure related to COVID-19.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. No author has professional or financial relationships with any companies that are relevant to this study. There are no conflicts of interest or sources of funding to declare.

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