Intubation training in emergency medicine: a review of one trainee's first 100 procedures

A review was performed looking at the first 100 intubation procedures performed or solely supervised by one emergency medicine trainee. Over the 5 year period during which the procedures were performed the author performed 93 and supervised 7 procedures. There were 90 rapid sequence intubation procedures and 10 intubations without drugs. The intubation procedure was successful by the author on 94 occasions, 91 of these on the first attempt and 3 on a second attempt. There were 8 complications. These comprised 3 oesophageal intubations and 5 failures to achieve an adequate view. This study suggests that as a trainee gains experience in performing intubation procedures, the nature of the complications arising changes. Initial complications involved misplacement of the tube, whereas later complications involved not obtaining an adequate view, latterly in increasingly difficult airways. Truly difficult airways are not common and may not be experienced until much later in a trainee's career.