Early Airway Management for Cardiac Arrest?

Prior studies have been equivocal about whether advanced airway management (AAM; endotracheal intubation or supraglottic airway) for patients in cardiac arrest improves outcomes by increasing oxygenation or worsens outcomes by preventing quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR; NEJM JW Emerg Med Feb 2013 and JAMA 2013; 309:257). These authors compared outcomes for early versus late AAM in a large, population-based cohort of patients with cardiac arrest in Osaka, Japan, from 2005 to 2012.

Participants included more than 27,000 adult patients in whom AAM was attempted by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel during CPR. AAM was categorized as early (time from start of CPR to achievement of AAM <5 minutes) or late (5–29 minutes). Propen…