Secular trends in airway management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) dataset

Introduction: Prehospital airway management is essential in resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). No longitudinal national stud-ies have described longitudinal trends in airway device choice. We sought to evaluate secular trends of OHCA endotracheal intubation (ETI) and supraglottic airway (SGA) in the United States (US).Methods: We evaluated ETI and SGA use for 2013-2022 in adult OHCA in the US using the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) data -base. We identified OHCA events (CPR performed or defibrillation) and evaluated the proportions of ETI and SGA used during OHCA. We repeated the results stratified by urbanicity. We used descriptive statistics to describe the prevalence of airway device use by urbanicity.Results: During the study period, we observed 320,154,097 adult 9-1-1 events. Of 3,118,703 OHCA, there were 699,568 and 337,458 cases with reported ETI and SGA attempts. The dominant airway choice was ETI, though the trend of ETI choice decreased as SGA increased over time. From 2013 to 2022, SGA use increased in urban settings, while rural and suburban remained stable.Conclusion: Over ten years, rates of advanced airway use have increased, with ETI remaining the predominant airway for adults in OHCA. Inter-estingly, ETI choice decreased as SGA increased over the study period. SGA use distinctly differed in urban settings, increasing concerns for dis-parities in care provision among communities. With the increased use of SGA over time, further evaluation of patient outcomes is required in datasets with robust linkage to Utstein variables.

Automated summary

This study in the US found that over the past decade, the use of advanced airways in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has increased, with endotracheal intubation remaining the primary airway choice for adults, but supraglottic airway use has been steadily increasing. In urban settings, there was a significant increase in supraglottic airway usage, while rural and suburban areas remained stable in their usage.