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Background: Airway management in the emergency room can be challenging when patients suffer from life-threatening conditions. Mental stress, ignorance of the patient's medical history, potential cervical injury or immobilisation and the presence of vomit and/or blood may also contribute to a difficult airway. Videolaryngoscopes have been introduced into clinical practice to visualise the airway and ultimately increase the success rate of airway management., Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the C-MAC videolaryngoscope improves first-attempt intubation success rate compared with direct laryngoscopy in patients undergoing emergency rapid sequence intubation in the emergency room setting., Design: A randomised clinical trial., Setting: Emergency Department of the University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland., Patients: With approval of the local ethics committee, we prospectively enrolled 150 patients between 18 and 99 years of age requiring emergency rapid sequence intubation in the emergency room of the University Hospital Zurich. Patients were randomised (1 : 1) to undergo tracheal intubation using the C-MAC videolaryngoscope or by direct laryngoscopy., Interventions: Owing to ethical considerations, patients who had sustained maxillo-facial trauma, immobilised cervical spine, known difficult airway or ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation were excluded from our study. All intubations were performed by one of three very experienced anaesthesia consultants., Main Outcome Measures: First-attempt success rate served as our primary outcome parameter. Secondary outcome parameters were time to intubation; total number of intubation attempts; Cormack and Lehane score; inadvertent oesophageal intubation; ease of intubation; complications including violations of the teeth, injury/bleeding of the larynx/pharynx and aspiration/regurgitation of gastric contents; necessity of using further alternative airway devices for successful intubation; maximum decrease of oxygen saturation and technical problems with the device., Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled, but three patients had to be excluded from the analysis, resulting in 74 patients in the C-MAC videolaryngoscopy group and 73 patients in the direct laryngoscopy group. Tracheal intubation was achieved successfully at the first attempt in 73 of 74 patients in the C-MAC group and all patients in the direct laryngoscopy group (P = 1.0). Time to intubation was similar (32 ± 11 vs. 31 ± 9 s, P = 0.51) in both groups. Visualisation of the vocal cords, represented as the Cormack and Lehane score, was significantly better using the C-MAC videolaryngoscope (P < 0.001)., Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that visualisation of the vocal cords was improved by using the C-MAC videolaryngoscope compared with direct laryngoscopy. Better visualisation did not improve first-attempt success rate, which in turn was probably based on the high level of experience of the participating anaesthesia consultants., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02297113.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is indicated in patients suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Several studies suggest a sex- and age-based bias in the treatment of these patients. This particular bias may have a significant impact on the patient's outcome. However, the reasons for these findings are still unclear and discussed controversially. Therefore, the aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze treatment and out-of-hospital survival rates for potential sex- and age-based differences in patients requiring out-of-hospital CPR provided by an emergency physician in the city of Zurich, Switzerland.A total of 3961 consecutive patients (2003-2009) were included in this retrospective analysis to determine the frequency of out-of-hospital CPR and prehospital survival rate, and to identify potential sex- and age-based differences regarding survival and treatment of the patients.Seven hundred fifty-seven patients required CPR during the study period. Seventeen patients had to be excluded because of incomplete or inconclusive documentation, resulting in 743 patients (511 males, 229 females) undergoing further statistical analysis. Female patients were significantly older, compared with male patients (68 ± 18 [mean ± SD] vs 64 ± 18 years, P = .012). Men were resuscitated slightly more often than women (86.4% vs 82.1%). Overall out-of-hospital mortality rate was found to be 81.2% (492/632 patients) with no differences between sexes (82.1% for males vs 79% for females, odds ratio 1.039, 95% confidence interval 0.961-1.123). No sex differences were detected in out-of-hospital treatment, as assessed by the different medications administered, initial prehospital Glasgow Coma Scale, and prehospital suspected leading diagnosis.The data of our study demonstrate that there was no sex-based bias in treating patients requiring CPR in the prehospital setting in our physician-led emergency ambulance service.

Introduction: In the prehospital setting, advanced airway management is challenging as it is frequently affected by facial trauma, pharyngeal obstruction or limited access to the patient and/or the patient's airway. Therefore, incidence of prehospital difficult airway management is likely to be higher compared to the in-hospital setting and success rates of advanced airway management range between 80 and 99%., Methods: 3961 patients treated by an emergency physician in Zurich, Switzerland were included in this retrospective analysis in order to determine the incidence of a difficult airway along with potential circumstantial risk factors like gender, necessity of CPR, NACA score, GCS, use and type of muscle relaxant and use of hypnotic drugs., Results: 692 patients underwent advanced prehospital airway management. Seven patients were excluded due to incomplete or incongruent documentation, resulting in 685 patients included in the statistical analysis. Difficult intubation was recorded in 22 patients, representing an incidence of a difficult airway of 3.2%. Of these 22 patients, 15 patients were intubated successfully, whereas seven patients (1%) had to be ventilated with a bag valve mask during the whole procedure., Conclusion: In this physician-led service one out of five prehospital patients requires airway management. Incidence of advanced prehospital difficult airway management is 3.2% and eventual success rate is 99%, if performed by trained emergency physicians. A total of 1% of all prehospital intubation attempts failed and alternative airway device was necessary., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Especially in the emergency setting, rapid and successful airway management is of major importance. Conventional endotracheal intubation is challenging and requires high level of individual skills and experience. Videolaryngoscopes like the C-MAC are likely to offer better glottis visualization and serve as alternatives to conventional endotracheal intubation. The aim of this study is to compare clinical performance and feasibility of the C-MAC videolaryngoscope compared to conventional endotracheal intubation in the emergency setting., Methods/design: This study is designed as a prospective, patient-blinded, mono-center, randomized cohort study. This study will be performed at the Emergency Department of the University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. All patients transferred to the Emergency Department and requiring emergent endotracheal intubation will be screened. Successful intubation with first intubation attempt will serve as the primary outcome. Time to intubation, intubation attempts, Cormack & Lehane Score, ease of intubation, complications, necessity of using alternate intubation device, maximum drop of saturation, and potential technical problems serve as secondary outcomes., Discussion: In the clinical setting, the ultimate success rate of endotracheal intubation ranges between 97% and 99%. Unexpected difficulties during laryngoscopy and poor glottis visualization occur in up to 9% of all cases. In these cases, videolaryngoscopes may increase success rate of initial intubation attempt and thereby patient safety., Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov (identifier NCT02297113 ).