2012 Airway Article of the Year Announced

Airway World hosted the first annual “Airway Article of the Year” awards show as a live webinar on December 12, 2012. Ron Walls, MD and guest presenters Ali Raja, MD, MPH, MBA and Cheryl Lynn Horton, MD selected and presented four articles as finalists — one for each of the Quarterly Airway Management Research Update webinars held in 2012. The content and merits of each article we discussed and debated by the panel and the winner was chosen by a vote of the on-line audience during the show. The recorded show can be viewed at: www.airwayworld.com/webinars

 

The 2012 Nominees:

 

The nominees for this honor were:

 

1. Silbergleit R et al. Intramuscular versus intravenous therapy for prehospital status epilepticus. N Engl J Med 2012 Feb 16; 366:591. (View the abstract here)

 

2. Aziz MF et al. Comparative effectiveness of the C-MAC video laryngoscope versus direct laryngoscopy in the setting of the predicted difficult airway. Anesthesia 2012 Mar; 116:629. (View the abstract here)

 

3. Wilcox SR et al. Neuromuscular blocking agent administration for emergent tracheal intubation is associated with decreased prevalence of procedure-related complications. Crit Care Med 2012 Jun; 40:1808. (View the abstract here)

 

4. Je SM et al. Comparison of GlideScope® versus Macintosh laryngoscope for the removal of a hypopharyngeal foreign body: A randomized cross-over cadaver study. Resuscitation 2012 Oct; 83:1277. (View the abstract here)

 

The 2012 Winner

 

The winner of the first “Airway Article of the Year” is Intramuscular versus intravenous therapy for prehospital status epilepticus by Robert Silbergleit, Valerie Durkalski, Dan Lowenstein, Robin Conwit, Art Pancioli, Yuko Palesch and William Barsan.

 

“There is no question in my mind that this is a practice changing study,” said Ron Walls, MD, Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine (Emergency Medicine) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Walls is co-director of Airway World® and The Difficult Airway Course™. “Although not strictly an airway management study, proper management of status epilepticus often avoids the need for intubation. This study presents a very simple protocol that we should all be following.”

 

In Silbergleit’s study, researchers compared the efficacy of IM and IV therapy in a randomized, double-blind trial involving 33 EMS systems. They concluded that “for subjects in status epilepticus, intramuscular midazolam is at least as safe and effective as intravenous lorazepam for prehospital seizure cessation.”

 

“This is one of the most important studies we covered this year,” said Ali Raja, MD, MPH, MBA, Associate Director of Trauma at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine (Emergency Medicine) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Raja was a co-presenter of the Quarterly Airway Management Research Update webinars in 2012. “It shows that you don’t need an IV before you can start treating epilepticus patients to terminate their seizures.”

 

The presenters concluded the award show by congratulating the lead author, Dr. Rob Silbergleit and his team for “a fantastic contribution to our knowledge.”

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