Complications during repeated tracheal intubation in the Intensive Care Unit. A prospective, observational study...

The goal of the study was to compare the incidence of complications, technical difficulty of intubation and physiologic pre-intubation status between the first intubation and reintubation performed on the same patient in an ICU.

The study was approved by the ethics committee of Galicia (Santiago-Lugo, code No. 2015-012). Due to the observational, noninterventional, and noninvasive design of this study, the need for written consent was waived by the ethics committee of Galicia. Patients requiring tracheal intubation and reintubation in the ICU were included in this prospective observational study. Main endpoint was to compare the incidence of complications, physiologic pre-intubation status, and the rate of technical difficulty of intubation between the first intubation and reintubation performed on the same patient in an ICU.

504 patients were intubated in our ICU during the study period, and 82 (16%) required reintubation. There was no difference between the first intubation and reintubation regarding number of total complication (35% vs 33%; P = ,86), hypotension (24% vs 24%; P = 1), hypoxia (26% vs 26%; P = 1), esophageal intubation (1% vs 1%; P = 1), and bronchoaspiration (2% vs 1%; P = ,86). Physiologic pre-intubation status and technical difficulty of intubation did not differ between the first intubation and reintubation.

In our ICU patients requiring tracheal reintubation, incidence of complications, physiologic pre-intubation status, and technical difficulty of intubation did not differ between the first intubation and reintubation.