Intubation is the one procedure that provokes the most anxiety for trauma professionals. What about those facial fractures? What if you can’t get it? Video-assisted intubation is now readily available and at a reasonable cost. And it seems like a great idea, but does it make intubation easier?
A paper to be presented at the AAST next week looked at intubation success among relatively inexperienced users, junior residents. They compared success rates of video assisted (VA) intubation in an ICU (74 patients) with direct laryngoscopic (DL) intubation performed in an ED (54 patients).
All patients were successfully intubated by the junior resident, or by a more senior backup if they were unsuccessful (fellow or attending). The junior residents were successful in 96% of the VA intubations, but in only 76% of DL intubations. Less experienced residents (<20 intubations) were successful in all 96% of the VA intubations but in only 40% of the DL. And the least experienced, those who had done less than 5 intubations, obtained an airway with VA 37% of the time vs 7% for DL. The number of desaturations to less than 80% and hospital mortality was the same for the two groups.
Bottom line: Video assisted intubation is superior to the old-fashioned direct laryngoscopic technique. Even inexperienced providers have a better success rate with the video assisted technique. Over the next few years, it will become the standard for intubating patients, both in the field by medics and in the hospital.
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Reference: The emergent airway: video-assisted intubation is superior to direct laryngoscopy for teaching junior residents. AAST 2011 Paper #65.
