Internal and emergency medicine
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Risk factors for failed first intubation attempt in an out-of-hospital setting: a multicenter prospective study.
This study was performed to identify variables potentially associated with failure of the first intubation attempt in an out-of-hospital emergency setting, considering all aspects of tracheal intubation. This observational prospective multicenter study was performed over 17 months and involved 10 prehospital emergency medical units. After each tracheal intubation, the operator was required to provide information concerning operator and patient characteristics, as well as the environmental conditions during intubation, by completing a data collection form. ⋯ The frequency of adverse events among non-cardiac arrest patients was 17.6%; it increased with each additional intubation attempt. The first intubation attempt failed in more than 30% of cases, and seven variables were associated with increased risk of failure. Most of these factors could not be predicted.