While we're on the subject of airway drugs, did you guys hear about the new study that dispeled the intraocular pressure contraindication of succinylcholine?
Increased intraocular pressure was one of the like... 13 contraindications of succinylcholine; one of my buddies [a flight surgeon] found a study that equated the increase in pressure to blinking your eyes 80 times.
I mean, It dosen't really change much, I'm not gonna ask the head trauma patient with a clenched jaw if he has narrow-angle glacouma before we RSI his ass. They used to make us put temp strips on their forehead for malignant hyperthermia, too--- I mean I can see why, and I understand the dangers... but there's no way we can tell most of the time. It's not like they make 'medic alert' bracelets that say "Malignant Hyperthermia".
I guess that's why prehospital medicine makes some providers stroke out, if we followed some of the "relative" contraindications in a good number of life-saving medications we would never get our jobs done.