Airway management in the critically ill

Successful first attempt intubation of the critically ill patient is of extreme importance. While these patients are anatomically and physiologically complicated, making intubation particularly risky, several important steps have recently been shown to improve the chances of a safe first attempt success. Proper evaluation, planning, positioning, preoxygenation, and in select patients the use of a neuromuscular blocking agent have all been shown to be useful for minimizing the difficult intubation and intubation- related complications. Additionally, although there is significant controversy regarding video laryngoscopy, the use of a video laryngoscope as the primary method of intubation has been shown in all cases to be at least as good as, and often more successful than, direct laryngoscopy.