Patient safety in emergency airway management and rapid sequence intubation: metaphorical lessons from skydiving

Concern about patient safety and failed rapid sequence intubation has led to an increased awareness of potentially difficult laryngoscopy situations and algorithms promoting techniques in awake patients. Given the low overall incidence of failed laryngoscopy, however, prediction of difficult laryngoscopy has poor positive predictive value and uncertain clinical utility, especially in emergency settings. Non-rapid sequence intubation approaches have comparatively lower chances of intubation success, require more time, and are associated with more complications. As a specialty, emergency medicine has adopted rapid sequence intubation as the mainstay of emergency airway treatment for many appropriate reasons; the problem that must be addressed is how patient safety can be ensured while what is an inherently dangerous procedure is performed. A novel way to conceptualize patient risk and safety issues in rapid sequence intubation is to examine how inherent risk is managed in skydiving. Metaphorical lessons from skydiving that are applicable to rapid sequence intubation include (1) a redundancy of safety; (2) a methodic approach to primary chute deployment; (3) use of backup chutes that are fast, simple, and easy to deploy; (4) attention to monitoring; and (5) equipment vigilance. This article reviews how each of these lessons apply metaphorically to rapid sequence intubation, wherein the primary chute is laryngoscopy, the backup chute is rescue ventilation, and monitoring involves pulse oximetry.