Manual of Emergency Airway Management

Media Review

CJEM 2001;3(3):235

Manual of Emergency Airway Management. Editor-in-chief, R.M. Walls. Contributing editors, R.C. Luten, M.F. Murphy, R.E. Schneider. 2000. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. 240 pp. $65.50. ISBN 0-7817-2616-6

This is the companion manual to the National Emergency Airway Management Course. It serves as an instructional guide for the emergency medicine resident and practising clinician, for a critical skill: airway management. Most of the contributors are either emergency physicians who teach, practise in a US emergency department or are instructors in the National Emergency Airway Management Course. The result is a practical clinical text for emergency physicians that provides in-depth discussions on important airway topics.

You will find an algorithmic approach to all airway problems, including the difficult or failed airway. Rapid sequence intubation, including timing, drugs and crucial steps, are described in detail. Basic skills such as bag-and-mask ventilation are well explained, and more advanced skills (e.g., cricothyrotomy) will be easier to understand with these step-by-step instructions. Specific solutions for many clinical circumstances -- status asthma-ticus, elevated intracranial pressure, pulmonary oedema, cardiogenic shock -- are proposed, and non-invasive ventilatory support and mechanical ventilation are discussed. The pediatric patient is not forgotten; separate chapters emphasize subtle differences and limitations of airway techniques used for children. The excellent figures and drawings reinforce key points and highlight the text.

Because this book is written by emergency physicians for emergency physicians, it contains the information required to acquire skills that can also save lives in the ED. Every emergency physician will benefit from this book, and it is an easy read. Although it cannot replace the National Emergency Airway Management Course, it is less expensive and is the kind of book that we ought to have at hand in the emergency department.

Claude Topping, MD
Directeur, Programme de formation
complémentaire de médecine d'urgence
Département de médecine familiale
Université Laval
Québec (Qué.)
claude.topping@mfa.ulaval.ca