Dr. Tara L. Neubrand presented an abstract at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2020 today on behalf of the Videography in Pediatric Resuscitation Collaborative (VIPER).

The study's objective was to use video review to compare intubator training level, first-attempt endotracheal intubation (ETI) success and presence of hypoxia during ETI attempts in the pediatric emergency department in the pre-COVID and COVID era.

In a retrospective case series of video-recordings of ETIs at the four tertiary care pediatric emergency departments comprising the VIPER Collaborative, the investigators evaluated video-recordings for first-attempt intubation success and hypoxia, defined as SpO2 <90%.

Data was compared before (PRE) and after (POST) implementation of COVID-19 airway protocols, which each emergency department adopted in March 2020.  Between 1/1/2019 and 6/1/2020, a total of 272 patients underwent ETI (239 PRE, 33 POST). Overall first attempt success was 65% in PRE and 85% in POST (p=0.02). Hypoxia was noted in 15% of PRE patients and in 12% of POST patients. Analysis of the training level of the intubator was notable for a significant increase in the number of intubations performed by anesthesiologists. In multivariate analysis controlling for intubator background, the POST phase was associated with greater first attempt success (AOR 2.4, 95% CI 1.6 – 3.7). Slide-set: RESS2020224 Neubrand Presentation