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. 2024 Mar 29:15:104.
doi: 10.25259/SNI_386_2023. eCollection 2024.

Airway risk associated with patients in halo fixation

Adrienne R Azurdia  1 , Jarvis Walters  2 , Chris R Mellon  3 , Salvatore C Lettieri  4 , Tammy R Kopelman  2 , Paola Pieri  2 , Iman Feiz-Erfan  5
Affiliations

Airway risk associated with patients in halo fixation

Adrienne R Azurdia et al. Surg Neurol Int. .

Abstract

Background: The halo fixation device introduces a significant obstacle for clinicians attempting to secure a definitive airway in trauma patients with cervical spine injuries. The authors sought to determine the airway-related mortality rate of adult trauma patients in halo fixation requiring endotracheal intubation.

Methods: This study was a retrospective chart review of patients identified between 2007 and 2012. Only adult trauma patients who were intubated while in halo fixation were included in the study.

Results: A total of 46 patients underwent 60 intubations while in halo. On five occasions, (8.3%) patients were unable to be intubated and required an emergent surgical airway. Two (4.4%) of the patients out of our study population died specifically due to airway complications. Elective intubations had a failure rate of 5.8% but had no related permanent morbidity or mortality. In contrast to that, 25% of non-elective intubations failed and resulted in the deaths of two patients. The association between mortality and non-elective intubations was statistically highly significant (P = 0.0003).

Conclusion: The failed intubation and airway-related mortality rates of patients in halo fixation were substantial in this study. This finding suggests that the halo device itself may present a major obstacle in airway management. Therefore, heightened vigilance is appropriate for intubations of patients in halo fixation.

Keywords: Airway Management; Cervical Injury; Emergent Intubation; Halo Fixation; Loss of Airway Mortality; Tracheostomy; Trauma Intubation.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Patient selection criteria.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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