Tag Archives: scalpel finger bougie

Prehospital Emergency Procedures: Scalpel, Finger, Bougie. That’s all you need!

13 Jul

In Emergency Medicine “Simplicity” is synonymous of efficiency, efficacy and reproducibility.

More the time frame is stressful more we need procedures that are efficient, efficacious and standardised, in one word SIMPLE.

Critcothyrodotomy and chest drain are procedures usually performed in high stressing scenarios and more simply they are more chance of success they have.

I don’t like complicate kits. They need training of course but even a calm and protected environment, and the middle of a street or a busy ER room aren’t nothing like that. 

I don’t like blindly performed procedures but prefer trusting my own senses and sensibility when performing high invasive procedures that, mostly of the times, are a lifesaving last chance.

So this is the best way I know to perform a surgical access to the airway and to drain a highly unstable tense pneumo: using simple instruments, always present in every emergency pack, and trusting my own tactile sensitivity.

surgical-airway-sfb

In those following videos you can see live records of the procedures. They were captured during a recent cadaver lab where I had the honour to join Jim DuCanto, Yen Chow, Carmine Della Vella and Fabrizio Tarchi in teaching airway management and clinical emergency procedures.

Hope you enjoy.

 

 

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