Video Laryngoscopy for EMS

May 11, 2017

Short Attention Span Summary

Prehospital VL
For experienced physician intubators, video laryngoscopy (VL) didn’t improve first-pass success and may have decreased it slightly.  But for less experienced, non-physician intubators, VL almost doubled first-pass success.  This meta-analysis of 8 studies was limited by significant heterogeneity, including use of a variety of VL devices: C-MAC, Airway Scope, GlideScope Ranger, Airtraq, and King Vision.

Spoon Feed
VL is a good way to improve first-pass success in the prehospital setting, especially for care providers who don’t intubate frequently.  For a rant on VL, see Minh Le Cong’s PHARM podcast, and Chris Nickson has a short post – DL vs. VL on LiTFL.

Citation
Direct Versus Video Laryngoscopy for Prehospital Intubation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Acad Emerg Med. 2017 Apr 1. doi: 10.1111/acem.13193. [Epub ahead of print]