Characteristics of patients with acute ischemic stroke intubated before imaging

There are no prospective data on which ischemic stroke patients require endotracheal intubation. This retrospective observational study describes the characteristics and outcomes of adult ischemic stroke patients admitted to two emergency department (ED)-ICU from January 2005 to October 2011 and who were intubated before imaging, either during the prehospital or the ED phase of care. Data were extracted from hospital charts and analyzed using descriptive statistics. During the study period, 57 of 6492 ED patients (<1%) with ischemic stroke were intubated. Of these, 31 were intubated before imaging. The median age of the study group patients was 78 years (IQR, 71-81) and 20 (64%) were men. Twenty-eight (90%) patients had a Glasgow Coma Score of 8 or less at the time of intubation. Twenty-six patients (84%) died during their hospital stay. The proportion of ED ischemic stroke patients intubated before imaging was very low. Almost all were severely ill and the majority died.