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Airway strategy and survival in Polish HEMS
Advanced airway management practice patterns and short-term survival in Poland’s national physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service, 2020–2024: a retrospective observational study
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine · 2026-10-16 · Added 18 October 2026
A retrospective analysis of Poland's national physician-staffed HEMS registry tested airway strategies in 8,980 intubated adults against survival to hospital handover — HEMS-performed intubation was most common (49.8%), and in non-traumatic cardiac arrest a sequential supraglottic-airway-then-intubation strategy showed no significant difference from HEMS-performed intubation, while some other strategies carried higher unadjusted odds of not being alive at handover.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective national HEMS registry cohort
- Participants
- 8,980 adults requiring advanced airway management
- Main finding
- HEMS-performed intubation was the most common strategy (49.8%); sequential supraglottic-to-intubation did not differ significantly from HEMS-performed intubation in non-traumatic cardiac arrest; 32.9% were not alive at hospital handover
- Caveat
- Univariate analyses only, so strategy effects are confounded by patient severity, and the physician-staffed setting limits direct comparison with paramedic-only systems
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Delivered by a physician-staffed HEMS crew, a model Australian services don't run — but the questions it speaks to (intubation vs supraglottic first, and who performs the intubation) sit squarely in the intensive care paramedic skill set across Australia.
Learning goal
Weigh a sequential supraglottic airway approach against primary intubation when managing advanced airways in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Airway & ventilation
- Daily scan: 18 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 18 October 2026
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