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Flight team management of in-place endotracheal tubes
1STAR/Hartford Hospital, 80 Seymour St, P.O. Box 5037, Hartford, CT 06102-5037, USA.
Introduction:
Unintended misplacement or removal of the endotracheal tube (ETT) complicates the care of up to 18% of intubated patients. This project analyzed the incidence of such complications in patients transported by a flight program.
Methods:
9-month analysis of all intubated patients transported by the flight team.
Results:
340/926 patients transported were intubated. One extubation was unplanned and no patients were delivered to the receiving hospital with an esophageal or endobronchial ETT placement. After initial examination, 19/241 ETTs placed before flight team arrival were repositioned. Rates of misplacement on arrival at the receiving hospital and of unplanned extubation were significantly lower than those reported in the EMS or critical care literature.
Conclusion:
Flight teams have very low rates of unplanned extubation or undetected ETT misplacement when transporting intubated patients.