• Uzung Yoon, Jeffrey Mojica, Matthew Wiltshire, Kara Segna, Michael Block, Anthony Pantoja, Marc Torjman, and Elizabeth Wolo.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Suite 8290 Gibbon, 111 South 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. uzyoon@gmail.com.
• BMC Anesthesiol. 2019 Dec 3; 19 (1): 220.

BackgroundEmergent airway management outside of the operating room is a high-risk procedure. Limited data exists about the indication and physiologic state of the patient at the time of intubation, the location in which it occurs, or patient outcomes afterward.MethodsWe retrospectively collected data on all emergent airway management interventions performed outside of the operating room over a 6-month period. Documentation included intubation performance, and intubation related complications and mortality. Additional information including demographics, ASA-classification, comorbidities, hospital-stay, ICU-stay, and 30-day in-hospital mortality was obtained.Results336 intubations were performed in 275 patients during the six-month period. The majority of intubations (n = 196, 58%) occurred in an ICU setting, and the rest 140 (42%) occurred on a normal floor or in a remote location. The mean admission ASA status was 3.6 ± 0.5, age 60 ± 16 years, and BMI 30 ± 9 kg/m2. Chest X-rays performed immediately after intubation showed main stem intubation in 3.3% (n = 9). Two immediate (within 20 min after intubation) intubation related cardiac arrest/mortality events were identified. The 30-day in-hospital mortality was 31.6% (n = 87), the overall in-hospital mortality was 37.1% (n = 102), the mean hospital stay was 22 ± 20 days, and the mean ICU-stay was 14 days (13.9 ± 0.9, CI 12.1-15.8) with a 7.3% ICU-readmission rate.ConclusionPatients requiring emergent airway management are a high-risk patient population with multiple comorbidities and high ASA scores on admission. Only a small number of intubation-related complications were reported but ICU length of stay was high.

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