Improving Prehospital Management of Children With Respiratory Distress

Abstract For prehospital providers, guidelines for managing children with respiratory distressare often based on expert opinion, extrapolated from studies in the inpatient or emergency department setting or studies with adult patients. Implementing researchprotocols to develop best practices for pediatric prehospital management is challenging due to the infrequent opportunities emergency medical services(EMS) providers have to provide care to pediatric patients. Critically ill or injured children with respiratory distressdue to airway compromise or underlying illness such as severe asthma exacerbationsare relatively low frequency but high risk events in the prehospital setting. Improving the pipeline from prehospital scientific research to clinical practice for higher quality evidence has been an Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendation for over a decade. The objective of this article is to describe current evidence guiding prehospital management of children with respiratory distressand to discuss potential research opportunities.