Home › Airway & ventilation › NRB + nasal cannula inferior to flush-rate preoxygenation

Airway & ventilation

NRB + nasal cannula inferior to flush-rate preoxygenation

Combined NRB and Nasal Cannula Oxygen Delivery Is Inferior to Flush Rate NRB for Emergency Preoxygenation
Prehospital Emergency Care · Added 29 September 2026

Healthy-volunteer crossover study — NRB plus nasal cannula at 15–25 L/min each produced expired oxygen of 68–75% versus 85% for flush-rate NRB, so the portable-cylinder workaround is inferior when supply allows flush rate.

Study type

Other

Design

Experimental crossover study in healthy volunteers

Participants

30 healthy volunteers

Main finding

Mean FeO2: flush-rate NRB 85% vs 68% (NRB + nasal cannula at 15 L/min each) and 75% (at 25 L/min each); differences of 16% (95% CI 13–20%) and 10% (95% CI 6–14%), both failing non-inferiority.

Caveat

Healthy volunteers in a controlled setting, not patients requiring emergency airway management.

Bottom line

Supports current practice

Learning goal

Refine my preoxygenation technique for emergency airway management by weighing flush-rate oxygen against combined delivery methods.

More

• Topic: Airway & ventilation
• Daily scan: 29 September 2026
• Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 29 September 2026

Related papers on Airway & ventilation

• Prehospital RSI: what makes it hard

  Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 7 Oct 2026 · Qualitative · Context only

  Qualitative focus-group study of 39 South African emergency care practitioners found pre-hospital RSI is hampered by system-driven administrative demands, resource and workforce constraints, and communication gaps affecting clinical decision-making.

• Feedback improves neonatal face mask ventilation

  Resuscitation Plus · 26 Sep 2026 · Simulation · Context only

  Prospective simulation study in neonatology fellows testing low-dose, high-frequency face mask ventilation practice with real-time respiratory function monitor feedback across T-piece, self-inflating and flow-inflating bags — feedback lifted tidal volumes in target range from 62.3% to 80.3% and cut mask leak on every device, while extra sessions without feedback added little.

• SGA vs intubation in OHCA: ROSC lower with SGA

  Resuscitation Plus · 25 Sep 2026 · Systematic review · Hypothesis-generating

  Systematic review and meta-analysis comparing supraglottic airway devices with endotracheal intubation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Abstract not yet available (ahead-of-print).

• VAPOX preoxygenation in ED intubation

  Emergency Medicine Australasia · 22 Sep 2026 · Cohort · Context only

  Australian retrospective cohort of 116 patients intubated with ventilator-assisted preoxygenation (VAPOX) in two EDs — 78% achieved first-pass success without hypoxaemia, but half had at least one complication and 36% became hypotensive after intubation