Tracheal Intubation in COVID-19 Patients

The Emergency Endotracheal intubation of a patient who is COVID-19 positive is a high-risk procedure and an additional challenge to an intensivist due to barrier enclosures that have been developed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission to healthcare providers during intubation. Although the incidence of difficult airways is commonly higher in critically ill patients, the evidence of severe hypoxemia without sign of respiratory distress could complicate the scenario.This silent hypoxia often leads to a delayed recognition of the severity of respiratory failure and to a late intubation which is often characterized by a high risk of complications related to the actual airways' management, hemodynamic and cardiac. It has been shown that non-survivors had worse blood gas analyzes than survivors, both before and after intubation. Few studies have reported the implications and adverse events of performing endotracheal intubation for critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs).