Abstract
Background: To our knowledge, there has been no study comparing intubation characteristics between attending and non-attending Emergency Physicians in South-East Asia. We aim to identify whether the use of Direct Laryngoscopy (DL) compared to Video Laryngoscopy (VL) affects first pass success rates between Attending Emergency Physicians (AEP) and Non-Attending Emergency Physicians (NAEP). Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from 2009 to 2016 in an existing airway registry managed by and academic Emergency Department in Singapore. Primary outcome is first pass success intubation rate. The secondary outcome was first pass success rate for difficult intubations. Difficult intubations were defined as LEMON score of more than 1 or more than 1 attempt at intubation. Results: There were 2909 intubation carried out by emergency physicians in the Emergency Department from 2009 to 2016. AEP conducted 1748 intubations while NAEP conducted 1161 intubations. The first pass success rates for AEP was 84.2% while that for NAEP was 67.4%. 86.2% of intubations by AEP were done with a direct laryngoscope. 89.0% of the intubations by NAEP were done with a direct laryngoscope. 18.9% of intubations by the AEP were difficult compared to 35.2% by the NAEP (p<0.01 95% C.I 13.0%-19.6%). First pass success rate with VL was lower than DL for all intubations (OR 0.66, 95% C.I 0.51-0.84). In the subgroup of difficult intubations, VL did not improve first pass success rate among AEP (OR 0.77, 95% C.I 0.38-1.58) but it did for NAEP (OR 2.46, 95% C.I 0.94-6.45). Conclusion: Our study showed that VL has a poorer first pass success rate for all intubations in general. However, specifically for difficult intubations, VL is associated with improved first pass success rates among NAEP.
Does Video Laryngoscopy or Direct Laryngoscopy affect first pass success rates for intubation among Attending and Non-Attending Emergency Physician in the Emergency Department?
