Airway Management: The Current Role of Videolaryngoscopy

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Critical Care

Background:

• Airway management is crucial for patient safety.
• Complications during airway management can lead to severe harm.
• Videolaryngoscopy presents an advancement over traditional direct laryngoscopy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current evidence supporting videolaryngoscopy.
• To explore the scope of videolaryngoscopy utilization.
• To identify barriers to videolaryngoscopy adoption and suggest future research.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of recent evidence on videolaryngoscopy.
• Analysis of current clinical practice and guidelines.
• Discussion of factors influencing adoption and future directions.

Main Results:

• Videolaryngoscopy improves first-pass intubation success, reduces difficult views, oxygen desaturation, and airway trauma.
• Shared visualization with videolaryngoscopy enhances teaching and team performance.
• Despite benefits, videolaryngoscopy use lags behind its availability due to various barriers.

Conclusions:

• Videolaryngoscopy is recommended as a first-intention technique in airway management.
• Barriers to adoption include cost, training, decontamination, sustainability, and perceived limitations.
• Further research and advancement are needed to promote wider videolaryngoscopy integration.