By Scott M. Bruner
EMS1 Product Editor
Studies in the past decade have shown the difficulty of managing airways in emergent patients. Any tool to help the EMS provider become more proficient in this essential task is helpful. Ireland-based TruCorp’s AirSim medical manikins offer a singular approach to training by offering realistic simulations of breathing pathways.
“Our innovation is realism, we pride our products on their attention to detail, using real CT scan data as a basis for their construction,” Chris Lawlor, sales and marketing director for TruCorp, said. “We also use select materials to increase the performance and functionality of the manikins.”
Their most recent release to their AirSim family of manikins that was on display at EMS Today in Baltimore is the AirSim Junior – an airway management training simulator for infants. TruCorps offers five different breathing simulators, which include realistic modeled head and airways.
All of the airways are modeled to be as biologically correct and precise as possible.
Their main model is the AirSim Standard, which TruCorps touts as providing realistic feedback during airway management. The Standard features a mouth, tongue, teeth and oral airway. It is designed for training with laryngeal masks, supraglottic devices, laryngoscopes, tracheal tubes, fibreoptic laryngoscopes, and needle cricothyroidotomy systems.
Their AirSim Multi includes nasal passage and chin for bag and mask ventilation, and the ability to offer naso-tracheal intubation and awake fibreoptic examination.
Their AirSim Bronchi provides a manikin with detail down to the fourth generation bronchi. It has been developed to be a training aid for diagnostic bronchoscopy, lung isolation techniques, and lunch suctioning techniques.
Finally, there is an AirSim Advance model, which features simulated skin, tongue and even “breakout” teeth to simulate the effects of improper laryngoscopy.
The AirSim Junior, however, is the newest model – simulating the unique characteristics of an infant’s airways with the same attention to detail as their adult manikins. It allows EMTs training with positive pressure ventilation and the ability to insert laryngeal masks and entotracheal intubations (nasal and oral). It even comes with its own lungs in order to demonstrate correct tube placement.
Because of its realistic anatomical features, it can provide training and demonstrations of all pediatric video laryngoscopes.
“AirSim Junior is one of the most realistic pediatric airway manikins available,” Lawlor said. “Using our design and materials capabilities, the airway both looks and feels real during training. We used extensive data modeling to create features expected in an infant airway compared to an adult airway, such as a relatively larger epiglottis and tongue.”
It was released in January this year and is available for $1500.
“Our goal is to continue to innovate through design and production of ‘real-feel’ manikins both in airway management and other disciplines,” Lawlor said. “Our motivation is to seek to raise the standards in simulation-based training through our products.”
For more information on the AirSim family, TruCorps can be found online at www.trucorp.co.uk.