Airway management research: a systematic review

SummaryRecent controversy regarding the ethics of conducting airway research in patients led to disagreements concerning the value and frequency of manikin ‐based investigation. However, no formal examination of the methodology of airway research has been undertaken. We, therefore, performed a systematic bibliometric review of airway management research to describe the conduct, quantify the subjects (patient vs. manikin vs. other), assess the reporte d outcomes and map global trends. We retrieved 1505 relevant studies published between 2006 and 2017, together recruiting 359,648 subjects, of which 341,233 were patients, the remaining being volunteers or subjects managing manikins, human cadavers, animals or bench models. There were 701 randomised controlled clinical trials (46.6%), 83 non‐randomised experimental clinical trials (5.5%), 298 observational studies (19.8%) and 423 non‐patient studies (28.1%). A total of 1082 studies (71.9%) were patient studies and 322 were manikin studies (21.4%). The total annual number of airway manageme nt studies increased over time, as did the annual number of patient studies, but there was no significant increase in the annual number of manikin studies over time. Of the patient studies, subject baseline characteristics were most likely to be ASA status 1–2 (n = 531, 49.1%), populations were mo st often elective surgical patients (n = 918, 84.8%) and the most common interventions studied were tracheal intubation (n = 820, 54.4%) or s...
Source: Anaesthesia - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Review Article Source Type: research