Mastering the Pre-Hospital Airway: Assessment, RSI, SALAD & FONA

Airway management remains one of the most critical and technically demanding aspects of pre-hospital care. In this special Pre-Hospital Airway Compilation, we bring together leading voices in airway management to explore the fundamentals, controversies, and high-stakes realities of managing the airway outside the hospital environment.Across these conversations, we move from airway assessment and respiratory evaluation through to advanced interventions including rapid sequence induction, Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination (SALAD), and Front of Neck Access (FONA). We examine the challenges unique to the pre-hospital environment, discuss practical approaches to decision-making under pressure, and explore where clinicians fit into a stepwise airway management strategy—from optimisation and monitoring all the way through to invasive surgical techniques.Joining us first is John Chatterjee. John is a Consultant Anaesthetist with interests in pre-hospital care, difficult airway management, thoracic anaesthesia, and high-risk anaesthesia. Alongside John, we are joined by Cliff Reid, a retrieval physician with more than two decades of experience across air ambulance and critical care transport services. This episode aims to provide practical insights into one of pre-hospital medicine’s most challenging and consequential interventions.This episode is sponsored by PAX: The gold standard in emergency response bags.When you’re working under pressure, your kit needs to be dependable, tough, and intuitive. That’s exactly what you get with PAX. Every bag is handcrafted by expert tailors who understand the demands of pre-hospital care. From the high-tech, skin-friendly, and environmentally responsible materials to the cutting-edge welding process that reduces seams and makes cleaning easier, PAX puts performance first. They’ve partnered with 3M to perfect reflective surfaces for better visibility, and the bright grey interior makes finding gear fast and effortless, even in low light. With over 200 designs, PAX bags are made to suit your role, needs, and environment. And thanks to their modular system, many bags work seamlessly together, no matter the setup.PAX doesn’t chase trends. Their designs stay consistent, so once you know one, you know them all. And if your bag ever takes a beating? Their in-house repair team will bring it back to life.PAX – built to perform, made to last.Learn more at ⁠https://www.pax-bags.com/en/⁠VitalStream from BHA Medical sponsors this podcast: Closing the Haemodynamic Blind Spots in Acute and Pre-Hospital CareVitalStream is a wireless, wearable, non-invasive haemodynamic monitoring platform designed to deliver continuous, real-time physiological data, so you’re not relying purely on intermittent cuff readings when patients are unstable, moving, or in non-traditional care environments.BHA Medical’s VitalStream solution focuses on integrating this level of monitoring into acute care workflows, streaming real-time data to a centralised platform, supporting earlier recognition of deterioration and more informed clinical decision-making.In corridor medicine, where patients are often managed outside traditional monitored spaces, the challenge is missed deterioration between spot checks. Continuous trending helps reduce those “blind spots,” enabling earlier identification of haemodynamic decline and better prioritisation when systems are under pressure.And in pre-hospital care, the value is in maintaining a clear physiological narrative from first patient contact through to hospital handover. VitalStream is designed for rapid deployment, applied, calibrated, and delivers data within around 90 seconds, using a low-pressure finger sensor that allows teams to follow trends in real time, rather than relying on isolated snapshots.For more information, visit: https://www.bha-medical.com/vitalstream-patient-monitoring