Airway management in penetrating neck trauma at a Canadian tertiary trauma centre.

OBJECTIVES: The optimal approach to airway management in penetrating neck injuries (PNIs) remains controversial. The primary objective of this study was to review the method of endotracheal intubation in PNI at a Canadian tertiary trauma centre. Secondarily, we sought to determine the incidence of PNI in our trauma population and to describe the epidemiologic elements of this population.

METHODS: We conducted a review of patients with PNIs who were enrolled in the Nova Scotia Trauma Registry database. We included all penetrating injuries of the neck in patients > or = 16 years of age from April 1, 1994 to March 31 2005 with an Injury severity Score (ISS) > or = 9 or who underwent Trauma Team activation at our Tertiary Trauma Centre (regardless of ISS) and/or who were identified upon admission as a "major" trauma case. The variables of interest were patient age and sex, injury mechanism, injury location, place of intubation and method of intubation.

RESULTS: There were 19 people who met inclusion criteria and they were enrolled in our study. The injury mechanisms involved knife (n = 13) or gunshot (n = 5) wounds (one patient's injuries were categorized as "other"). Three patients (15.8%) were not intubated. The remaining 16 patients were intubated during prehospital care (n = 5), in the emergency department (n = 6) or in the operating room (n = 5). Of these, 8 patients (42.1%) underwent awake intubation and 8 (42.1%) underwent rapid sequence intubation.

CONCLUSION: There is clear variability of airway management in PNI. We believe that such patients represent a heterogeneous group where the attending physician must have a conservative yet varied approach to airway management based on the individual clinical scenario.