Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 105, August 2016, Pages 196-202
Resuscitation

Clinical paper
Video laryngoscopy vs. direct laryngoscopy: Which should be chosen for endotracheal intubation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation? A prospective randomized controlled study of experienced intubators

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.04.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Aim

This study compared endotracheal intubation (ETI) performance during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) between direct laryngoscopy (DL) and video laryngoscopy (VL) (GlideScope®) by experienced intubators (>50 successful ETIs).

Methods

This was a prospective randomized controlled study conducted in an emergency department between 2011 and 2013. Intubators who used DL or VL were randomly allocated to ETI during CPR. Data were collected from recorded video clips and rhythm sheets. The success, speed, complications, and chest compressions interruption were compared between the two devices.

Results

Total 140 ETIs by experienced intubators using DL (n = 69) and VL (n = 71) were analysed. There were no significant differences between DL and VL in the ETI success rate (92.8% vs. 95.8%; p = 0.490), first-attempt success rate (87.0% vs. 94.4%; p = 0.204), and median time to complete ETI (51 [36–67] vs. 42 [34–62] s; p = 0.143). In both groups, oesophageal intubation and dental injuries seldom occurred. However, longer chest compressions interruption occurred using DL (4.0 [1.0–11.0] s) compared with VL (0.0 [0.0–1.0] s) and frequent serious no-flow (interruption > 10 s) occurred with DL (18/69 [26.1%]) compared with VL (0/71) (p < 0.001). For highly experienced intubators (>80 successful ETIs), frequent serious no-flow occurred in DL (14/55 [25.5%] vs. 0/57 in VL).

Conclusions

The ETI success, speed and complications during CPR did not differ significantly between the two devices for experienced intubators. However, the VL was superior in terms of completion of ETI without chest compression interruptions.

Trial Registration

Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS) in South Korea KCT0000849.

Introduction

Endotracheal intubation (ETI) is considered to be the best method of airway management during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).1 However, despite its life-saving intent, ETI can have latent risks for survival in arrest patients.2, 3 Compared with ETI of non-arrest patients, ETI during CPR has higher risks of failure or delayed success with frequent attempts, misplacement of the tube, and prolonged interruptions of chest compressions.4, 5, 6 The ERC guidelines recommend that ETI during CPR should be attempted only if the health-care provider is properly trained and has regular, ongoing experience with the technique.1

The main problems associated with ETI relate to the inherently technical difficulty in using direct laryngoscopy (DL), which is the standard device. Various types of video laryngoscopy (VL) devices using microcamera technology have been developed to overcome the problems of DL, and the use of VL has increased in operating rooms and intensive care units.7 For ETI during CPR, a paradigm shift to change from using DL to VL has been suggested because VL may be easier to learn and faster when performing ETI, and may reduce the risk of complications.8, 9 Positive results from various simulation trials support this suggestion.

However, most specialists may require evidence obtained beyond the simulation setting. Although VL is being used particularly by novice physicians in clinical arrest settings, there is little clinical evidence of the use of VL by experienced physicians.1, 10 It seems that many experienced physicians, who are mainly responsible for ETI in the real-world clinical environment, may be not consider VL as a primary device for ETI during CPR now. To investigate the possibility that new VL is new primary device for ETI during cardiac arrest, more clinical studies including experienced intubators are needed.

The study aimed to compare the success rate of ETI, speed of ETI, incidence of complications, and chest compression interruptions between experienced intubators using DL and VL in a clinical setting.

Section snippets

Study design and setting

This was a prospective randomized controlled study conducted in the emergency department (ED) at an urban 870-bed tertiary training hospital. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board for Human Research at our institution (approval number KUH005126). In our ED, over 50,000 patients annually visit for emergency care, and >150 out-of-hospital arrest patients are transported to the ED for advanced life support. The advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS)

Baseline data

During the 24-month study period, 325 CPRs were performed in cardiac arrest patients; 311 were out-of-hospital arrests and 14 were in-hospital arrests treated at the ED. A total of 270 ETIs were performed during ongoing chest compressions in 237 patients, and 130 of these ETIs were excluded for the following reasons: ETI on patients wearing a cervical collar (n = 7), ETI performed by an inexperienced intubator (n = 120) and poor recording quality (n = 3). A total of 140 ETIs were included in the

Discussion

From the early 20th century, DL has been used as the airway device of choice for viewing the glottis.13 ETI techniques using DL are highly dependent of personal skills, and experience with the procedure is indispensable for acquiring sufficient proficiency in ETI.12, 14 With advances in technology, two noticeable milestones in advanced airway management have been introduced to overcome the difficulties in using this device. First was the supraglottic airway (SGA) device, which has been used

Conclusions

For experienced intubators, DL and VL had similar high success rates for ETI and rare complications. However, serious no-flow during CPR occurred in ETI using DL, but not in VL. For arrest patients, VL was superior to DL as an airway device for completing ETI without serious chest compression interruptions.

Conflict of interest statement

All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgement

This paper was supported by Konkuk University.

References (27)

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A Spanish translated version of the abstract of this article appears as Appendix in the final online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.04.003.

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