Date: October 17th, 2019

Reference: Driver et al. Effect of Use of a Bougie vs Endotracheal Tube and Stylet on First-Attempt Intubation Success Among Patients With Difficult Airways Undergoing Emergency Intubation. A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA May 2018

Guest Skeptic: Missy Carter, former City of Bremerton Firefighter/Paramedic, currently a physician assistant practicing in emergency medicine in the Seattle area and an adjunct faculty member with the Tacoma Community College paramedic program.

Case: You are preparing for a rapid sequence intubation in a patient suffering from respiratory distress. While doing your airway assessment you notice some difficult airway characteristics (obese patient with a small mouth opening). In the past you’ve had failed first pasts attempts on a similar patient and used a bougie as your back up device. You wonder if this time you would be more successful using the bougie for your first attempt.

Background: We have covered airway a number of times on the SGEM. This has included supraglottic airways for OHCA (SGEM#247), POCUS for confirming endotracheal tube placement (SGEM#249) and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation for OCHA (SGEM#96) just to name a few. However, we have never covered the issue of using a bougie for intubation. 

For many years the bougie has been considered a back up or “rescue” airway tool and only pulled out after one or even several failed intubation attempts. Many studies have shown that multiple intubation attempts can increase mortality and morbidity, so we are always striving to increase our first pass intubation success rates to improve patient care.

Clinical Question: Does using a bougie increase first pass intubation success?

Reference: Driver et al. The Bougie and First-Pass Success in the Emergency Department. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2017

* Population: Adult patients (age > 17 years) who underwent intubation in the emergency department

* Excluded: Patients with missing videos that recorded the intubation, cases in which a bougie was used with a hyper angulated video laryngoscope blade (GlideScope) or were intubated before arrival to the emergency department

* Intervention: Bougie with Macintosh or CMAC laryngoscope

* Comparison: Intubation with endotracheal tube and stylet

* Outcome:

* Primary Outcome: First-pass success rates

* Secondary: Duration of attempts, hypoxia and esophageal intubations

Authors’ Conclusions: “Bougie was associated with increased first-pass intubation success. Bougie use may be helpful in ED intubation.”

Quality Checklist for Observational Study:

* Did the study address a clearly focused issue? Yes

* Did the authors use an appropriate method to answer their question? Yes

* Was the cohort recruited in an acceptable way? Yes

* Was the exposure accurately measured to minimize bias? Yes

* Was the outcome accurately measured to minimize bias? Yes

* Have the authors identified all-important confounding factors? Yes

* Was the follow up of subjects complete enough? Yes

* How precise are the results? Fairly precise given the small sample size

* Do you believe the results? Yes

* Can the results be applied to the local population? Unsure