Trends in endotracheal intubation for patients with COVID-19 by emergency physicians

Emergency physicians perform endotracheal intubations for patients with COVID-19. However, the trends in the intubation for COVID-19 patients in terms of success rate, complications, personal protective equipment (PPE) information, barrier enclosure use, and its transition have not been established. We conducted a retrospective study of COVID-19 cases that required tracheal intubation at four hospitals in the Tokyo metropolitan area between January 2020 and August 2021. The overall intubation success rate, operator experience, and infection control methods were investigated. We then compared the early and late phases of the pandemic for a period of 8 months each. A total of 211 cases met the inclusion criteria, and 133 were eligible for analysis. The intubation success rate increased from 85% to 94% from early to late phase, although the percentage of intubations performed by emergency medicine residents increased significantly in the late phase (p = 0.03). The percentage of light PPE use significantly increased from 65% to 91% from early to late phase (p < 0.01), whereas the percentage of barrier enclosure use significantly decreased from 26% to 0% (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the infection prevention methods during intubation became more simplified from early to late phase.