Supervision by Attending Anesthesiologists Reduces Complications of Emergency Intubation

Emergency intubations outside the operating room and emergency department are often performed by unsupervised anesthesiology residents, with reported complication rates of more than 20%. To evaluate whether supervision by an attending anesthesiologist reduces complication rates, researchers conducted a prospective, observational study of emergency intubations performed by anesthesiology residents with and without supervision during a 14-month period at a major academic medical center.

All anesthesiology residents had a minimum of 6 months of anesthesiology experience and had performed a mean of 220 intubations (range, 160–344). A respiratory therapist assisted at all intubations and collected the data. Of 322 emergency intubations performed …