Inflight medical kits

Great controversy surrounds the issue of United States (US) air carrier inflight medical kits. Although there are four medications mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that appeared to be adequate as determined by a 1988 survey, there is now a renewed call to review the medical kit contents with an eye toward making them more robust. This has been prompted by several well publicized inflight medical events and the fact that overseas airlines have a very wide array of pharmaceuticals and supplies. Consequently, the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) convened a Task Force of physicians across the major specialties to put forward recommendations regarding medication, medical supplies, and automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). These deliberations were based upon a survey of AsMA physician members.