Patient requiring awake tracheotomy
This case was designed to assess and improve team preparedness for safely and effectively caring for a critically ill patient with presumed COVID-19 with an unstable, unintubatable airway who requires an awake tracheotomy.
Learning Objectives:
- Demonstrate knowledge of and effective management of a patient with COVID-19 to reduce the risk of contamination to oneself, OR staff, and OR environment;
- Apply Best Practice Guidelines for tracheotomy in a COVID-19 positive patient;
- Manage a high-risk aerosolization procedure of an infectious agent – tracheotomy
Case authors and actors: Ross Campbell, MD (Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery), Kristina Pulkk, MD (Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery); Michelle Chiu, MD (Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine); Megan McCoy (Nurse Educator)
Directed by: Vicki LeBlanc, PhD (Director, University of Ottawa Skills & Simulation Centre; Chair, Department of Innovation in Medical Education, University of Ottawa)
Edited by: Glenn Posner, MD (Medical Director, The Ottawa Hospital Simulation Patient Safety Program)
