Out-of-Hospital Intubation With Metal Single Use Laryngoscope Blades

Out-of-Hospital Intubation in Emergency Conditions With Either Metal Single Use or Reusable Laryngoscope Blades : Impact on Intubation Difficulties

New single use laryngoscope metal blades are available for intubation. This type of blade is safer than the reusable ones concerning the interhuman cross infection risk. No clinical studies have compared the two types of blades in the emergency context. The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate that single use blades are as efficient as the reusable ones concerning intubation conditions.

All adult patients requiring tracheal intubation in the pre hospital emergency context will be included. All intubation will be performed by an emergency physician or a nurse specialized in anesthesia. For patients with spontaneous cardiac activity, rapid sequence intubation will be performed to allow intubation.

Comparisons studied will be : Intubation success rate at the first laryngoscopy, glottis exposure assessed by Cormack and Lehane classification, difficult intubation rate assessed by the Intubation Difficult Score (IDS), the need for alternative airway techniques and the immediate post intubation complications rate as vomiting, dental trauma, pulmonary inhalation, arterial desaturation , hypotension episodes and cardiac arrest occurrence.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All adult patients requiring out-of-hospital intubation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient under 18 years old
• Patients with criteria predictive of impossible intubation under direct laryngoscopy