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Top 5 Airway Management Trainers - Sim & Skills

Top 5 Airway Management Trainers

We sell a LOT of airway management trainers. Our customers include anaesthetists, clinical skills nurses, paramedics and everything in between.

We’ve used our extensive experience and their expert feedback to compile this list of the best airway manikins. We’ve also taken into consideration value for money and the appropriate clinical skill level.

Before we reveal our top 5 airway management trainers, here's a little background information.

What is airway management?

In simple terms, without oxygenated blood reaching your brain, you will die, typically within 4 minutes. Blood gets its oxgen from air in your lungs, which obviously require an open airway.

Ostruction or occlusion of an airway can be commonly caused by:

  • A foreign object (choking)
  • Fluid (aspiration/drowning/trauma)
  • Swelling of the tongue (anaphylaxis/trauma)
  • Swelling of the upper airway (trauma/allergic reaction)

But the most common cause of airway obstruction is simply the flacid tongue of an unconscious patient.

 

What are basic airway adjuncts?

Devices used to manage or assist the upper airway are known as airway adjuncts. Examples include:

  • Oropharyngeal Airway (OPA)
    • A curved tube that prevents the tongue from occluding the trachea, much the same way a jaw thrust does.
  • Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA)
    • A longer curved tube that slides down the patients nostril, often used when the mouth is difficult to open, for example, during a seizure.

  

What are advanced airway adjuncts?

The most common advanced airways:

  • Endotracheal (ET) Tube
    • A tube which passes through the mouth or nose into the trachea with the use of a laryngoscope. The most technically difficult airway to place, but the most secure.
  • Supraglottic Airways
    • A supraglottic airway device, such as a Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) is easier to insert than an ET Tube and can be used by lower-qualifed clinicians.
    • The most common supraglottic airway is the i-gel, a single-use non-cuffed device that is easy to insert, especially in a prehospital environment.

 

The following list of airway management trainers all have the capability of accepting both basic and advanced airway adjunts.

 

Top 5 Airway Management Trainers

 

5.   Simulaids Adult Airway Management Trainer Torso from Nasco Healthcare

Based on the same torso and head as the Simulaids ALS Trainer, this model is renowned for its durability and is well-liked for its capability to have CPR performed on it. It's also available as a full body version with or without arms depending on your space and storage requirements.

4.   Airway Larry from Nasco Healthcare

A ‘classic’ in the clinical skills world, Larry has been around a very long time, for good reason. Well loved because of its durability, Airway Larry will withstand the roughest of novice intubations. With its slightly anterior position, it is a great trainer for introductory as well as advanced students.

3.   Simulaids Critical Airway Management Trainer from Nasco Healthcare

Many airway manikins have difficult airway features, but this Simulaids model is the only one that looks like a realistic trauma patient with external and internal bleeding wounds. Difficult airway features include tongue swelling and laryngospasm and the option to perform a cricothyrotomy.

 

2.   Smart Airway Management Simulator from BT Inc

The ONLY airway simulator which gives you objective feedback through every stage of your intubation. The intuitive software measures and logs the various procedures associated with intubation and supraglottic airway placement.

This unique product empowers healthcare professionals to practise and then assess their airway management skills with objective feedback, without the need for an instructor to be present. Export results for review and debrief later on. A score is generated so clinicians can easily measure and improve their skills.

The only reason this superb airway trainer is not higher up the rankings is the lack of difficult airway features. This model is perfect for students learning airway management for the first time.

1.   Simulaids Deluxe Airway Management Trainer from Nasco Healthcare

This deluxe airway head’s most beloved feature is the fact that it ‘flops’ about like a real unconscious patient. Its soft silicone construction is what gives it this unique ability, as well as a robustness that means it is suitable for novice and experts alike.

For the more advanced practitioner, difficult airway features include tongue oedema, laryngospasm and cricothyrotomy. It's a firm favourite with our customers and therefore takes the number 1 spot!

 

RECAP: Top 5 Airway Mangement Trainers:

  1. Simulaids Deluxe Airway Management Trainer from Nasco Healthcare

  2. Smart Airway Management Simulator from BT Inc

  3. Simulaids Critical Airway Management Trainer from Nasco Healthcare

  4. Airway Larry from Nasco Healthcare

  5. Adult Airway Management Trainer Torso from Nasco Healthcare

 

Which is your favourite? Have we missed it? Let us know in the comments.

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