• Nicholas Caputo, Ben Azan, Rui Domingues, Lee Donner, Mark Fenig, Douglas Fields, Robert Fraser, Karlene Hosford, Richard Iuorio, Marc Kanter, Moira McCarty, Thomas Parry, Andaleeb Raja, Mary Ryan, Blaine Williams, Hemlata Sharma, Daniel Singer, Chris Shields, Sandra Scott, Jason R West, and Lincoln Airway Group.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Lincoln Medical Center, Bronx, NY.
• Acad Emerg Med. 2017 Nov 1; 24 (11): 1387-1394.

ObjectivesDesaturation leading to hypoxemia may occur during rapid sequence intubation (RSI). Apneic oxygenation (AO) was developed to prevent the occurrence of oxygen desaturation during the apnea period. The purpose of this study was to determine if the application of AO increases the average lowest oxygen saturation during RSI when compared to usual care (UC) in the emergency setting.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted at an academic, urban, Level I trauma center. All patients requiring intubation were included. Exclusion criteria were patients in cardiac or traumatic arrest or if preoxygenation was not performed. An observer, blinded to study outcomes and who was not involved in the procedure, recorded all times, while all saturations were recorded in real time by monitors on a secured server. Two-hundred patients were allocated to receive AO (n = 100) or UC (n = 100) by predetermined randomization in a 1:1 ratio.ResultsA total of 206 patients were enrolled. There was no difference in lowest mean oxygen saturation between the two groups (92, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 91 to 93 in AO vs. 93, 95% CI = 92 to 94 in UC; p = 0.11).ConclusionThere was no difference in lowest mean oxygen saturation between the two groups. The application of AO during RSI did not prevent desaturation of patients in this study population.© 2017 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

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