Utility of Tracheal Ultrasonography for the Confirmation of the Endotracheal Tube Placement

Utility of Tracheal Ultrasonography for the Confirmation of Endotracheal Tube Placement During Intubation: A Diagnostic Accuracy Study

The aim of this study is to compare tracheal ultrasound with direct visualization of tracheal rings for the confirmation of endotracheal tube placement in intubated patients. We hypothesize that this method is more reliable, cheap, and readily available for all emergency physicians.

Confirmation of the ETT placement has utmost importance in the management of airway in emergency medicine (EM). Visual examination of the tube (fogging), auscultation, chest x-ray, capnography, capnometry and fiberoptic bronchoscopy are the main tools used for confirmation with increasing diagnostic utilities. Recently, tracheal ultrasonography (US) was introduced as a reliable, cheap and readily available method of confirmation of ETT placement.

Inclusion Criteria:

• adults (>=18 years)
• intubated in the ED
• during the shifts of the researchers (TM, OFC).

Exclusion Criteria:

• anatomical, traumatic or tumoral defect(s) at the site of sonographic imaging