Development of the Defense Registry for Emergency Airway Management (DREAM)

Airway obstruction is the second leading cause of potentially preventable death on the battlefield. Endotracheal intubation is a critical skill needed by emergency military physicians to manage these patients. Our objective is to describe the development of the Defense Registry for Emergency Airway Management (DREAM) at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), a level 1 trauma center over a 7-month period.

Emergency physicians (EP) performing endotracheal intubations in the BAMC emergency department (ED) completed standardized data collection forms with information about each event. Trained study team members extracted additional data from the medical records. We cross-referenced each intubation with patient tracking systems in the department and would fill in missing variables through interview with the intubating operator and/or medical records review.

The study period comprised January through July 2020. During the study period emergency physicians (EP) performed a total of 74 intubations. Reasons for intubation were related to trauma for 47 patients (64%) and medical conditions for 26 patients (36%). The median age was 51 (interquartile range 30-72) and most were male 48 (65.7%). Difficult airway characteristics encountered included blood in the airway (26%), facial trauma (23%), and airway obstruction (1%). Most intubations utilized video laryngoscopy, and the most frequently used airway devices were Macintosh-shaped (45%) and hyperangulated-shaped (41%). Overall, firstpass success rate was 93% (69) with majority of intubations performed by second-year emergency residents (61%) followed by first-year residents (28%).

Most DREAM intubations were related to traumatic injuries. The most frequently encountered difficult airway characteristics were blood in airway and facial trauma. Most intubations were conducted using video laryngoscopy with a high first-pass success rate similar to other published studies. Expansion of the registry to other military emergency departments would enable a data-driven solution for development of individual critical task lists.