Managing Respiratory Failure in the COVID-19 Era: A Multi-Center Study on Airways Management in Acute Respiratory Failure

This article published in the journal Med Intensiva reports on a study conducted in Northern Italy from November 2020 to May 2021 that aimed to determine the adverse events related to tracheal intubation in COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units. The study included adult patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests admitted for respiratory failure and need of advanced invasive airway management. The primary endpoint was to determine the occurrence of major adverse peri-intubation events, such as severe hypoxemia, hemodynamic instability, and cardiac arrest, within 30 minutes from the start of the intubation procedure. Among 142 patients, 73.94% experienced at least one major adverse peri-intubation event, with cardiovascular instability being the most common (65.49%), followed by severe hypoxemia (43.54%), and 2.82% of patients had a cardiac arrest. The study concludes that major adverse peri-intubation events were frequent in critically ill COVID-19 patients.