Exsufflation: Attention , éviter le péricarde !

Risk of Harm in Needle Decompression for Tension Pneumothorax
Thompson P et Al.  J Spec Oper Med. 2023 Apr 10;ZU1D-3DL9. doi: 10.55460/ZU1D-3DL9

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Les recommendations américaines sont parfois un peu hâtives. C'est le cas de celles portant sur la longueur préconisée du cathéter d'exsufflation. 

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Comme quoi le "suivisme" évoqué récemment par un homme politique françias n'est pas toujours bon.
Introduction: Tension pneumothorax (TPX) is the third most common cause of preventable death in trauma. Needle decompression at the fifth intercostal space at anterior axillary line (5th ICS AAL) is recommended by Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) with an 83-mm needle catheter unit (NCU). We sought to determine the risk of cardiac injury at this site.

Methods: Institutional data sets from two trauma centers were queried for 200 patients with CT chest. Inclusion criteria include body mass index of =30 and age 18-40 years. Measurements were taken at 2nd ICS mid clavicular line (MCL), 5th ICS AAL and distance from the skin to pericardium at 5th ICS AAL. Groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U and chi-squared tests.

Results: The median age was 27 years with median BMI of 23.8 kg/m2. The cohort was 69.5% male. Mean chest wall thickness at 2nd ICS MCL was 38-mm (interquartile range (IQR) 32-45). At 5th ICS AAL, the median chest wall thickness was 30-mm (IQR 21-40) and the distance from skin to pericardium was 66-mm (IQR 54-79).

Conclusion: The distance from skin to pericardium for 75% of patients falls within the length of the recommended needle catheter unit (83-mm). The current TCCC recommendation to "hub" the 83mm needle catheter unit has potential risk of cardiac injury.

Sang de banque sur pied: Mieux si on est entraîné

A prospective assessment of the medic autologous blood transfusion skills for field transfusion preparation

Steven G Schauer SG et Al. Transfusion. 2023 Mar 27. doi: 10.1111/trf.17325.

Background: Data demonstrate benefit from blood product administration near point-of-injury (POI). Fresh whole blood transfusion from a pre-screened donor provides a source of blood at the POI when resources are constrained. We captured transfusion skills data for medics performing autologous blood transfusion training.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational study of medics with varying levels of experience. Inexperienced medics were those with minimal or no reported experience learning the autologous transfusion procedures, versus reported experience among special operations medics. When available, medics were debriefed after the procedure for qualitative feedback. We followed them up to 7 days for adverse events.

Results: The median number of attempts for inexperienced and experienced medics was 1 versus 1 (interquartile range 1-1 for both, p=0.260). The inexperienced medics had a slower median time to needle venipuncture access for donation of 7.3 versus 1.5 minutes, needle removal after clamping time of 0.3 versus 0.2 minutes, time to bag preparation of 1.9 versus 1.0 minutes, time to IV access for reinfusion of 6.0 versus 3.0 minutes, time to transfusion completion of 17.3 versus 11.0 minutes, and time to IV removal of 0.9 versus 0.3 minutes (all p<0.05). We noted one administrative safety event in which allogeneic transfusion occurred. No major adverse events occurred. Qualitative data saturated around the need for quarterly training.

Conclusions: Inexperienced medics have longer procedure times when training autologous whole blood transfusion skills. This data will help establish training measures of performance for skills optimization when learning this procedure.

Laryngoscopie ? McGrath +++

A multicentre randomised controlled trial of the McGrath Mac videolaryngoscope versus conventional laryngoscopy
M Kriege M et All. Anaesthesia. 2023 Mar 16. doi: 10.1111/anae.15985.

Before completion of this study, there was insufficient evidence demonstrating the superiority of videolaryngoscopy compared with direct laryngoscopy for elective tracheal intubation. We hypothesised that using videolaryngoscopy for routine tracheal intubation would result in higher first-pass tracheal intubation success compared with direct laryngoscopy. In this multicentre randomised trial, 2092 adult patients without predicted difficult airway requiring tracheal intubation for elective surgery were allocated randomly to either videolaryngoscopy with a Macintosh blade (McGrath) or direct laryngoscopy. First-pass tracheal intubation success was higher with the McGrath (987/1053, 94%), compared with direct laryngoscopy (848/1039, 82%); absolute risk reduction (95%CI) was 12.1% (10.9-13.6%). This resulted in a relative risk (95%CI) of unsuccessful tracheal intubation at first attempt of 0.34 (0.26-0.45; p < 0.001) for McGrath compared with direct laryngoscopy. Cormack and Lehane grade ≥ 3 was observed more frequently with direct laryngoscopy (84/1039, 8%) compared with McGrath (8/1053, 0.7%; p < 0.001) No significant difference in tracheal intubation-associated adverse events was observed between groups. This study demonstrates that using McGrath videolaryngoscopy compared with direct laryngoscopy improves first-pass tracheal intubation success in patients having elective surgery. Practitioners may consider using this device as first choice for tracheal intubation.

Trauma des voies aériennes

Blunt and Penetrating Airway Trauma 

Duggan  LV et Al.. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2023 Feb;41(1S):e1-e15. 

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C'est une chose compliquée, pas simple surtout en condition de combat et qui justifie la maîtrise d'un abord chirurgical du cou.  Ce document est, je trouve, excellent.

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Airway injury, be that penetrating or blunt, is a high-stakes high-stress management challenge for any airway manager and their team. Penetrating and blunt airway injury vary in injury patterns requiring prepracticed skills and protocols coordinating care between specialties. Variables including patient cooperation, coexisting injuries, cardiorespiratory stability, care location (remote vs tertiary care center), and anticipated course of airway injury (eg, oxygenating well and comfortable vs increasing subcutaneous emphysema) all play a role in determining airway if and when airway management is required. Direct airway trauma is relatively infrequent, but its presence should be accompanied by in-person or virtual otolaryngology support.