An Airway Rapid Response System: Implementation and Utilization in a Large Academic Trauma Center

Background: Rapid response teams mobilize resources to patients experiencing acute deterioration. Failed airway management results in death or anoxic brain injury. A codified, systems-based approach to bring personnel and equipment to the bedside for multidisciplinary airway assessment and rescue was reflected in the initial implementation of an airway rapid response (ARR) team.

Methods: A retrospective review of records of 117 ARR events in a 40-month period (August 2011-November 2014) was undertaken at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a 789-bed, academic, urban, tertiary care, Level 1 trauma center.

Results: Of the 117 ARR events, 60 (51.3%) were called in the ICU, and 43 (36.8%) in the general ward. A definitive airway was secured in all patients for whom airway management was attempted. A new surgical airway was performed in five of the patients. Seven patients went to the operating room for airway management. Nine patients died or had care withdrawn shortly after the ARR.

Conclusion: Difficult airway emergencies represent a small but critical element of airway rescue scenarios. Before the implementation of the ARR system, the process to bring the right team, equipment, expertise, and consensus on the right actions to critical airway emergencies was ad hoc. ARR activation, which brings multidisciplinary airway consultation, expert skills, and advanced airway equipment to the bedside, contributed to definitive airway management for surgical and nonsurgical airways. Performance of a bedside emergency surgical airway was uncommon. The ARR system represents a significant enhancement of the "anesthesia stat" system that typifies the airway emergency system at many institutions.