Establishing an airway in a patient in acute airway distress is often the first step in treating a patient under an advanced cardiac life support protocol. The patient's airway can be secured using mask ventilation, endotracheal intubation or tracheotomy, as most suitable for the situation. In certain circumstances, these three established modalities of safely establishing an airway may be difficult to accomplish in a timely fashion. In some emergency situations, these three options are not available to a treating practitioner, either due to the reason for which the patient's airway is obstructed or lack of available proper medical equipment. Under such circumstances some practitioners use what can be referred to as needle cricothyrotomy. This involves inserting a needle attached to a syringe into the patient's trachea to establish an airway. The efficacy of this technique is limited, however, as there is no readily available means of connecting the syringe to a ventilation device. The creation of such a connection takes valuable time away from the emergency task at hand, and even once established, air is not easily delivered through the needle to the patient's airway. Devices for quickly and easily establishing an airway for delivering oxygen to the patient are therefore desirable.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds