Prognosis of patients with tracheal intubation in the emergency department

Intubation of critically ill patients is one of the increasing emergency procedures. We designed this study to determine age and sex-related mortality rates after emergency intubation.

This retrospective study collected and analyzed non-trauma intubated patients in a referral hospital from the years 2017-2019 and before the appearance of COVID-19. Patients who were intubated outside of emergency by EMS technicians were excluded. We recorded data of intubated patients, like sex, age, length of being intubated and final diagnosis. P values of less than 0.05 were significant.

Data of 520 non-trauma intubated patients were collected and analyzed. More than 64% of the patients were over 65 years old and had a higher mortality rate (86.7%; P < 0.001) than younger patients. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 80%. More than three quarters of the decedents died within a week of intubation (P < 0.001). There was no significant relationship between sex and mortality rate (P = 0.535).

Our data showed that with increased age there was a decrease in the chance of being extubated.