Sangun Nah, Yonghee Lee, Sol Ji Choi, Jeongwoo Lee, Soyun Hwang, Seongmi Lim, Inhye Lee, Young Soon Cho, Hyun Soo Chung, on behalf of the Korean Emergency Airway Management Society
Clin Exp Emerg Med 2024;11(3):243-258. Published online March 15, 2024
Airway management is a fundamental and complex process that involves a sequence of integrated tasks. Situations requiring emergency airway management may occur in the emergency department, intensive care units, and various other clinical spaces. A variety of challenges can arise during emergency airway preparation, intubation, and postintubation, which may result in significant complications for patients. Therefore, many countries are establishing step-by-step systemization and detailed guidelines and/or updating their content based on the latest research. This clinical review introduces the current trends in emergency airway management, such as emergency airway management algorithms, comparison of video and direct laryngoscopy, rapid sequence intubation, pediatric airway management, prehospital airway management, surgical airway management, and airway management education.
Citations
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When Reversal Is Not Rescue: The Prehospital Sugammadex Myth in Airway Management Roman Sýkora, Jiří Chvojka, Metoděj Renza, František Duška Air Medical Journal.2026;[Epub] CrossRef
Indications, techniques, success rates and complications of emergency airway management in Thuringian emergency departments: a prospective registry analysis Nelly Richter, Frank Bloos, Christian Hohenstein World Journal of Emergency Medicine.2026; 17(2): 146. CrossRef
A National Advanced Airway Management (NAAM) programme in Romania under the framework of a European curriculum for Simulation-Based Education and Training (SBET) in anaesthesiology Claudiu Bârsac, Alina Petricā, Dorel Sāndesc, Diana Lungeanu, Şerban Bubenek, Marc Lazarovici, Doris Østergaard, Cosmin Bălan, Janos Szederjesi, Anca Irina Ristescu, Horațiu Nicolae Vasian, Crina L. Burlacu Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care.2025; 62: 101563. CrossRef
Optimal Provider Position for Video-Assisted Laryngoscopy of a Supine Patient on the Floor Jeffrey S Lubin, Justin Brooke, Mohit S Bhide Cureus.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
Association between physician specialty and first-attempt intubation success in the emergency department Lucas Oliveira J. e Silva, Rafael Von Hellmann, Bruno A.M. Pinheiro Besen, Julia M. Dorn de Carvalho, Ludhmila Abrahao Hajjar, Daniel Pedrollo, Caio Goncalves Nogueira, Natalia Mansur P. Figueiredo, Carlos Henrique Miranda, Danilo Martins, Thiago Dias Bau European Journal of Emergency Medicine.2025; 32(6): 430. CrossRef
First-attempt success and associated factors among emergency tracheal intubations in two addis Ababa hospitals Tsion K. Admas, Biruk T. Mengistie, Chernet T. Mengistie, Mikiyas G. Teferi, Meron H. Biza, Tseganesh G. Kebede, Getaw W. Hassen, Merahi K. Merahi BMC Emergency Medicine.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
Objective Emergency department (ED) triage systems are used to classify the severity and urgency of emergency patients, and Korean medical institutions use the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS). During the COVID-19 pandemic, appropriate treatment for emergency patients was delayed due to various circumstances, such as overcrowding of EDs, lack of medical workforce resources, and increased workload on medical staff. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the KTAS in predicting the urgency of emergency patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study retrospectively reviewed patients who were treated in the ED during the pandemic period from January 2020 to June 2021. Patients were divided into COVID-19–screening negative (SN) and COVID-19–screening positive (SP) groups. We compared the predictability of the KTAS for urgent patients between the two groups. Results From a total of 107,480 patients, 62,776 patients (58.4%) were included in the SN group and 44,704 (41.6%) were included in the SP group. The odds ratios for severity variables at each KTAS level revealed a more evident discriminatory power of the KTAS for severity variables in the SN group (P<0.001). The predictability of the KTAS for severity variables was higher in the SN group than in the SP group (area under the curve, P<0.001). Conclusion During the pandemic, the KTAS had low accuracy in predicting patients in critical condition in the ED. Therefore, in future pandemic periods, supplementation of the current ED triage system should be considered in order to accurately classify the severity of patients.
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Prognostic Performance of the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale Combined with the National Early Warning Score for Predicting Mortality and ICU Admission at Emergency Department Triage: A Retrospective Observational Study Jungtaek Park, Sang Hoon Oh, Ae Kyung Gong, Jee Yong Lim, Sun Hee Woo, Won Jung Jeong, Ji Hoon Kim, In Soo Kim, Soo Hyun Kim Diagnostics.2026; 16(2): 345. CrossRef
Prognostic value of novel indices combining Shock Index, Reverse Shock Index, age, and oxygen saturation for predicting mortality in COVID-19 patients in Iran at emergency department triage: a cross-sectional study Mehdi Torabi, Atefe Noroozpour, Neda Naeemi Bafghi, Moghaddameh Mirzaee Acute and Critical Care.2025; 40(3): 425. CrossRef
Objective Tube thoracostomy (TT) is a commonly performed intensive care procedure. Simulator training may be a good alternative method for TT training, compared with conventional methods such as apprenticeship and animal skills laboratory. However, there is insufficient evidence supporting use of a simulator. The aim of this study is to determine whether training with medical simulator is associated with faster TT process, compared to conventional training without simulator.
Methods This is a simulation study. Eligible participants were emergency medicine residents with very few (≤3 times) TT experience. Participants were randomized to two groups: the conventional training group, and the simulator training group. While the simulator training group used the simulator to train TT, the conventional training group watched the instructor performing TT on a cadaver. After training, all participants performed a TT on a cadaver. The performance quality was measured as correct placement and time delay. Subjects were graded if they had difficulty on process.
Results Estimated median procedure time was 228 seconds in the conventional training group and 75 seconds in the simulator training group, with statistical significance (P=0.040). The difficulty grading did not show any significant difference among groups (overall performance scale, 2 vs. 3; P=0.094).
Conclusion Tube thoracostomy training with a medical simulator, when compared to no simulator training, is associated with a significantly faster procedure, when performed on a human cadaver.
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