Impact of an anesthesiology rotation on subsequent endotracheal intubation success

Endotracheal intubation (ETI) is an essential skill that emergency medicine residents learn throughout their training.

To evaluate the effect of implementing a postgraduate year (PGY)-1 anesthesiology rotation on ETI success in the emergency department during PGY-2.

Residents in the study group completed a 4-week PGY-1 anesthesiology rotation. During the first 6 months of PGY-2, we compared ETI performance of the study group with a control group who did not experience a PGY-1 anesthesiology rotation. Data recorded included date, level of training, first- and second-attempt success, rescue devices used, major adverse events, and intubation scenario. A Pearson χ(2) test was used to compare first-attempt success, overall success (≤2 attempts), and adverse events rates between the 2 groups.

Overall success rate for the study groups was 95.7% (111 of 116), compared with 94.5% (137 of 145) for the controls (P  =  66). First-attempt success for the study group was 78.4% (91 of 116), compared with 83.4% (121 of 145) for the control group; this was not statistically significant (P  = .30). Observed major and minor adverse events were similar: 19.0% for the study group (22 of 116) versus 24.8% (36 of 145) for the control group (P  = .26).

The addition of an anesthesiology rotation to the PGY-1 curriculum did not have a significant effect on ETI success or the rate of adverse events during the first 6 months of PGY-2. First-attempt overall success and adverse events of our PGY-2 study group were consistent with previously published studies.