Foreign Body Airway Obstruction: Modern Principles and Approaches to First Aid and Dispatcher Assistance on First Aid

Abstract

Foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO) is one of the most common causes of accidental death in adults and children. Probability of saving a life in severe FBAO depends on the ability of the bystander to quickly recognize the problem and correctly provide first aid (FA) to the victim. However, due to the lack of knowledge and skills of the FA, bystanders rarely attempt to give necessary help. Along with mass FA training, provision of instructions on the FA to untrained bystanders over the telephone by emergency medical services (EMS) dispatchers can facilitate active involvement of the population in the process of providing FA. In this study, a detailed analysis of the modern principles and approaches to the provision of the FA in FBAO was carried out and a draft of a universal Russian-language algorithm for remote dispatch support of the FA was developed. The developed algorithm can become a component of the domestic program for remotely instructing the population on provision of FA in life-threatening conditions and is proposed for further testing and implementation in the practice of EMS dispatchers.

Keywords

• algorithm
• dispatcher
• bystander
• witness
• first aid
• emergency medical services
• airways
• foreign body
• obstruction
• asphyxia