Background In the modern battlefield environment, airway injury has become an important cause of death of the curable wounded. Whether the airway can be opened in time has become the key to save the lives of many patients with airway injury. The research of emergency airway opening device has practical needs.
Objective To develop Scale-type tracheotomy and expansion pliers forceps that can be used for emergency tracheotomy for airway injury at the battlefield.
Methods Eighteen miniature pigs were randomly divided into surgical cricothyrotomy (SC) group, surgical tracheotomy (ST) group, and rapid tracheotomy with Scale-type tracheotomy and expansion pliers forceps (STEF) group, with six miniature pigs in each group. The operation time and changes in SpO2 were recorded.
Results The airway opening was successfully completed in all miniature pigs, and unobstructed breathing channels were established. It took (60.0 ± 4.8) s for SC group, (117.5 ± 5.7) s for ST group, and (28.3 ± 2.8) s for STEF group to achieve SpO2 ≥ 90%,with minor bleeding. The SpO2 curve in the rising phase was kSC = 1.56, kST = 1.46, kSTEF = 1.54. The airway ventilation efficiency of STEF group was basically the same as that of SC and STgroups.
Conclusion Emergency tracheotomy using scale-type tracheotomy and expansion forceps is superior to surgical cricothyrotomy and surgical tracheotomy in operation time, and it is easy to operate, which has obvious advantages in the treatment of airway injuries at the battlefield.
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