SLAM Universal Adult Airway Flowchart (SUAAF) Overview
(click to view flowchart)
Street Level Airway
Management (SLAM) is a general system of teaching basic and advanced airway management skills that are useful regardless of
where emergency airway management occurs. The
system is based on the SLAM Concept, which states: "Most airway techniques used in anesthesiology can be generally applied
to a variety of areas where emergency airway management is performed by practitioners outside the operating room and hospital."
The
SLAM Universal Adult Airway Flowchart (SUAAF) is a comprehensive flowchart and can be used by all groups of practitioners,
regardless of their previous experience or time spent practicing airway management.
It was designed to assist in preventing major adverse respiratory events such as inadequate
ventilation, unrecognized esophageal intubation, and difficult intubation. SUAAF incorporates features that make it easy to understand, follow, learn, and teach.
The overall intent of SUAAF is to improve patient safety by providing oxygenation and
ventilation above intubation.
The question as to why another airway
algorithm has been developed is justified. Other
major algorithms provide valid schemes for management of the airway but are primarily for particular groups of practitioners
(usually hospital-based physicians). However,
difficult airway situations can occur across the entire spectrum of healthcare for any provider including physician, nurse,
anesthesiologist, paramedic, or other EMS providers.
SUAAF
presents clear strategies for enabling the practitioner to effectively deal with a wide range of emergency airway situations
occurring in and out of the hospital.
SUAAF
provides:
· practitioners
with critical decision-making schemes in emergency airway management.
·
clear and comprehensive strategies for prevention, rapid recognition, and
treatment of critical airway events, especially those occurring in the pre-hospital and non-operating room hospital environments.
· clinical guidance on: 1) when
tracheal intubation is appropriate, 2) when to stop attempting tracheal intubation, and 3) when to undertake rescue ventilation.
· for the use of simple techniques
to rescue failed intubation.
· for
the use of approved supraglottic airway devices for rescue ventilation.
·
evidence-based criteria for selection of adjunctive devices to confirm tracheal
intubation.
James M. Rich developed the SLAM Airway Conferences based on his SLAM Concept
and SUAAF. He is the founder and director of
the SLAM Airway Training Institute, a private foundation dedicated to patient safety, education and training, and clinical
competency in airway management. Since the inception
of the Institute and the SLAM Emergency Airway Conferences in 1999, several thousand people have been trained in emergency
airway management. Each attendee receives didactic
and hands-on instruction, followed by a written test and a practical hands-on test.
The success of the conferences can be attributed to their cost effectiveness, their portable
"we come to you" approach, and their highly organized format.
