Intubation Practices in Community Emergency Departments

This study analyzes emergency medicine airway management trends and outcomes among community emergency departments.

A multicenter, retrospective chart review was conducted on 11,475 intubations from 15 different community emergency departments between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2022. Data collected included patient's age, sex, rapid sequence intubation medications, use of cricoid pressure, method of intubation, number of attempts, admission diagnosis, and all-cause mortality rates.

Active cardiopulmonary resuscitation occurred in 11.4% of intubations. When rapid sequence intubation was employed, the most frequently used induction agents were etomidate (91.6%), propofol (4.3%), and ketamine (4.1%). From 2015 to 2022, the use of rocuronium (versus succinylcholine) increased from 33.9% to 61.9%, a difference of 28% (95% confidence interval [CI] 21.1% to 34.9%). During the same period, video laryngoscopy (versus direct laryngoscopy) increased from 27.4% to 77.7%, a difference of 50.3% (95% CI 44.2% to 56.4%). Only 46% of intubations used cricoid pressure. Physicians had a first-pass success rate of 80.5% and a failure rate of 0.2%. The most common documented admission diagnoses among intubated patients were respiratory etiologies (27.8%), neurologic causes (21.4%), and sepsis (16.0%). All-cause mortality rates were high for intubated patients at 24 hours (19.7%), 7 days (29.4%), 30 days (38.4%), and 1 year (45.4%).

Physicians intubating in community emergency departments have similar rates of first-pass success and failure seen in academic Level-1 trauma centers despite treating medically sick patients with high all-cause mortality rates. Dramatic shifts in choice of paralytic and method for intubation were seen.