Video beats direct laryngoscopy for intubation--even for experts
The question now is, how to teach and maintain DL skills in the video era?
Video laryngoscopy was introduced in 2001 as a technique for orotracheal intubation. Although an increasing share of intubations have been performed using video laryngoscopy, and it’s recommended for difficult airways, uncertainty has remained as to whether video was superior than conventional direct laryngoscopy for average risk intubations.
In the relatively few studies comparing video to direct laryngoscopy, intubations were usually performed by inexperienced trainees, and sample sizes were small. The real world success rates by operators experienced with intubation remained unknown.
That uncertainty has been largely dispelled by large randomized trials in 2023 and 2024 confirming that video laryngoscopy is a superior method for obtaining first pass intubation success for patients with average risk airways. The results seem to hold for both major video laryngoscopes (GlideScope and McGrath).
Cleveland Clinic: DL vs. GlideScopes in the OR (JAMA 2024)
In a cluster-crossover design, C…
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