Emergency Tracheal Intubation: Complications Associated with Repeated Laryngoscopic Attempts

In Brief Repeated conventional tracheal intubation attempts may contribute to patient morbidity. Criticallyill patients (n = 2833) suffering from cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, neurologic, or trauma-related deterioration were entered into an emergency intubation quality improvement database. This practice analysis was evaluated for airway and hemodynamic-related complications based on a set of defined variables that were correlated to the number of attempts required to successfully intubate the trachea outside the operating room. There was a significant increase in the rate of airway-related complications as the number of laryngoscopic attempts increased (≤2 versus >2 attempts): hypoxemia (11.8% versus…