Feasibility of Obtaining Intraosseous and Intravenous Access Using Night Vision Goggle Focusing Adaptors.

Area of Science:

• Medical technology
• Emergency medicine
• Tactical medicine

Background:

• Optimal lighting for low-light medical procedures remains unclear.
• Tactical lighting solutions are crucial for military and emergency medical personnel operating in austere environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of a tactical headlamp, night vision goggles (NVGs), and NVGs with focusing adaptors (NVG+A) for performing intravenous (IV) and intraosseous (IO) procedures in low-light conditions.
• To evaluate procedure success rates, time to completion, and user confidence across different lighting conditions.

Main Methods:

• A randomized within-subjects design was employed with 23 United States Navy medical personnel.
• Participants performed IV and IO procedures on mannequins using a headlamp, NVGs, and NVG+A.
• Success rates, completion times, and user preferences were analyzed using ANOVA and nonparametric statistics.

Main Results:

• Headlamp use resulted in significantly higher IV success rates (74%) compared to NVGs (35%) and NVG+A (52%).
• IO success rates were consistently high (96-100%) across all lighting conditions.
• Procedure completion times were significantly faster with the headlamp for both IV and IO access compared to NVGs and NVG+A.

Conclusions:

• Tactical headlamps demonstrated superior performance for IV access in low-light conditions compared to NVGs and NVG+A.
• While NVG+A showed some advantages over NVGs alone, they did not surpass headlamp effectiveness.
• Further research is needed to optimize lighting solutions for tactical medical procedures, considering limitations of laboratory settings.