Pre-Hospital

Millions of Americans suffer life-threatening medical emergencies each year. Standard treatment requires administering IV drugs and fluids to these patients.

Unfortunately, paramedics are unable to start IVs on more than 6 million patients annually. Traditional IV access is challenging or impossible in many seriously injured victims because the peripheral veins collapse when patients go into shock. As a result, thousands of patients die needlessly.

The medical community has long recognized the bone marrow or intraosseous space acts as a non-collapsible vein, through which any drug or fluid can be rapidly and safely administered. Currently, intraosseous access is used for emergency venous access in small children, whose bones are soft enough to permit manual insertion of intraosseous needles.

Because adult bones are much harder than the bones of children, a new needle to gain access in adults had to be developed.

The EZ-IO® product system developed by Vidacare and the University of Texas Health Science Center provides a solution to easy IO access in patients of all ages with needles customized to their specific weight.   With the EZ-IO product system, you no longer have to worry about time consuming and often exasperating IV access or central lines. You can now concentrate on the more important aspects of airway management, arrhythmias, fluid resuscitation, wound management and scene time.

Additionally, the American Heart Association recently announced revised guidelines for Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) that now recommend IO as the first alternative to IV in adult cardiac arrest patients.  For the first time in ACLS history, intraosseous vascular access for adults has been given Class IIa status, thereby recommending use of IO infusion as the alternative of choice and confirming the scientific validity and safety of the IO route.   This important change declares IO access a safe and effective route for accessing the central vascular system.

The European Resuscitation Counci (ERC) and International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) also revised their guidelines to now recommend intraosseous infusion (IO) as the first alternative to IV in adult and pediatric patients in emergency situations.

Summary of Worldwide Guidelines for Establishing Vascular Access in Cardiac Arrest Patients:

1. Establish IV or IO access for administration of cardiac drugs in cardiac arrest.
2. Central lines are not needed in most CPR attempts.
3. Adult IO cannulation provides venous access similar to that achieved by central venous access.
4. Adult IO access is safe and effective, according to several trials cited in the guidelines.
5. IO vascular access should be established if IV access is unavailable.
6. IO drug administration is preferred over endotracheal (ET) tube administration, providing more predictable drug delivery and pharmacological effect.
7. Throughout the ACLS protocols and algorithms, IO is paired with IV access and is recommended over central lines and ET tube drug administration for cases of cardiac arrest.