Video Laryngoscopy in Pre-hospital Critical Care

Difficult conditions and critically ill and injured patients may complicate endotracheal intubation in the pre-hospital setting. The incidence of complications increase when two or more endotracheal intubation attempts are needed.

The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of difficult pre-hospital endotracheal intubation after the introduction of the McGrath MAC Video laryngoscope as the primary airway device for pre-hospital endotracheal intubation.

Hypothesis:

• In our pre-hospital critical care teams, staffed with experienced anaesthesiologists, the rate of difficult PHETI (defined as more than one intubation attempt needed to secure a patent airway) is lower than 10 %, when using the McGrath MAC VL as primary choice in pre-hospital intubations.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients where the anaesthesiologists on the participating pre-hospital critical care teams attempt prehospital endotracheal intubation.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients< 15 years of age