[Assessment of intubation procedures at reference pediatric and neonatal intensive care units]

To describe intubation procedures in two pediatric and two neonatal intensive care units in the city of Porto Alegre.

Cross-sectional study divided into a retrospective and a prospective phase. All intubations performed in these units during a 6-month period were considered. Data were collected by interviewing the physician responsible for the procedure and reviewing the patients' charts, including drugs administered, sedation status, number of attempts, difficulties and complications during the procedure. Data were analyzed using the t test and the Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables and the chi-square test for categorical variables, considering a p < 0.05.

Sedatives were administered in 89.5% of the 134 pediatric procedures and 24% of the 116 neonatal procedures (p < 0.001). Muscle relaxants were prescribed for 3% of the children and 0.9% of the neonates. Only 53.7% of the children and 31.9% of the neonates were considered as adequately relaxed. The children who were inadequately relaxed had more intubations attempts (2.4-/+1.3 vs 1.7-/+1.2 p = 0.001), became more hypoxemic (20.9 vs 5.5% p = 0.015) and were more difficult to intubate (54.8 vs 25% p < 0.001). There were more urgent cases and more intubations attempts (2-/+1.2 vs 1.5-/+0.9 p = 0.036) among the inadequately relaxed neonates. Difficulties and complications occurred in 38.8 and 28.3% of the pediatric cases and 29 and 12% of the neonatal cases, respectively.

There was no established routine for intubation procedures in the units studied, and the use of muscle relaxants was not usual. The absence of adequate muscle relaxation is associated with more intubation attempts, difficulties and hypoxemia during the intubation procedure.