Table 2.
Patient, intubation, and operator characteristics.
| Groups (number of observations) | None (210) | ADA (649) | PDA (186) | Both (468) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, median (IQR), y | 51 (33 – 62) | 49 (32 – 62) | 59 (40 – 71) | 54 (38 – 66) |
| Gender | ||||
| Male, no. (%) | 135 (64) | 441 (68) | 121 (65) | 313 (67) |
| Medical/trauma, no. (%) | ||||
| Medical | 189 (90) | 328 (51) | 181 (97) | 300 (64) |
| Trauma | 21 (10) | 321 (49) | 5 (3) | 168 (36) |
| Reason for Intubation, no. (%) | ||||
| Airway protection | 156 (74) | 519 (80) | 74 (40) | 282 (60) |
| Cardiac arrest* | 3 (1) | 5 (0.8) | 5 (3) | 18 (4) |
| Patient control | 24 (12) | 65 (10) | 6 (3) | 14 (3) |
| Shock | 0 (0) | 1 (0.2) | 8 (4) | 17 (4) |
| Respiratory failure | 27 (13) | 59 (9) | 93 (50) | 134 (29) |
| Specific ADA, no. (%) | ||||
| Cervical immobility | N/A | 304 (47) | N/A | |
| Facial/neck trauma | 125 (19) | |||
| Airway edema | 26 (4) | |||
| Small mandible | 61 (9) | |||
| Obesity | 294 (45) | |||
| Large tongue | 100 (15) | |||
| Short neck | 84 (13) | |||
| Restricted mouth opening | 56 (9) | |||
| Blood in airway | 129 (20) | |||
| Vomit in airway | 90 (14) | |||
| Specific PDA characteristics, no. (%) | ||||
| Hypoxemia | N/A | N/A | 105 (56) | 259 (55) |
| Hypotension | 90 (48) | 251 (54) | ||
| Metabolic acidosis | 59 (32) | 136 (29) | ||
| RV failure | 5 (3) | 6 (1) | ||
| NMBA used, no. (%) | ||||
| Succinylcholine | 118 (56) | 451 (69) | 71 (38) | 267 (57) |
| Rocuronium | 92 (44) | 198 (31) | 115 (62) | 201 (43) |
| Induction agent used, no. (%) | ||||
| Etomidate | 173 (82) | 603 (93) | 145 (78) | 412 (88) |
| Ketamine | 16 (8) | 35 (5.3) | 38 (20.5) | 52 (11) |
| Midazolam | 5 (2.5) | 3 (0.5) | 1 (0.5) | 3 (0.6) |
| Propofol | 15 (7) | 8 (1.2) | 2 (1) | 1 (0.2) |
| Other | 1 (0.5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Operator specialty, no. (%) | ||||
| EM | 181 (86) | 579 (89) | 171 (92) | 412 (88) |
| EM-PEDS | 29 (14) | 70 (11) | 15 (8) | 56 (12) |
| Operator PGY EM, no. (%) | ||||
| PGY-1 | 43 (20) | 96 (15) | 40 (21) | 63 (13) |
| PGY-2 | 82 (39) | 269 (41) | 76 (41) | 180 (39) |
| PGY-≥ 3 | 85 (41) | 284 (44) | 70 (38) | 225 (48) |
| Device Used, no. (%) | ||||
| DL | 23 (11) | 39 (6) | 14 (8) | 15 (3) |
| SG VL | 132 (63) | 322 (50) | 149 (80) | 275 (59) |
| HA VL | 55 (26) | 288 (44) | 23 (12) | 178 (38) |
*
= cardiac arrest patients who had return of spontaneous circulation.
None, no difficult airway characteristic; ADA, anatomically difficult airway; PDA, physiologically difficult airway; Both, both anatomically and physiologically difficult airway characteristic; IQR, interquartile range; NMBA, neuromuscular blocking agent; EM, emergency medicine residents; EM-PEDS, combined emergency medicine and pediatric residents; PGY, postgraduate year; DL, direct laryngoscopy; SG VL, standard geometry video laryngoscope; HA VL, hyperangulated video laryngoscope.