Video laryngoscopy improves intubation success and reduces esophageal intubations compared to direct laryngoscopy in the medical intensive care unit

Table 2 Success rate by number of difficult airway characteristics and number of attempts

Number of DACs	VL %, (n = 234)	95% CI	DL %, (n = 56)	95% CI	P -value
0	84% (41)	76.7 to 86.9	75% (9)	73.0 to 92.8	0.67
1	80.0% (40)	76.9 to 87.0	55.6% (10)	45.7 to 65.9	0.04
2	83.3% (45)	75.3 to 85.7	46.2 (6)	36.9 to 57.2	0.009
2+	76.3% (103)	69.0 to 83.0	57.7% (15)	39.5 to 73.0	0.04
Attempts
1	78.6% (184)	72.8 to 83.7	60.7% (34)	46.8 to 73.5	0.009
2	96.2% (225)	92.9 to 98.2	85.7% (48)	73.0 to 92.7	0.007
3	97.4% (228)	94.5 to 99.0	89.3% (50)	77.0 to 95.1	0.01
>3	98.3% (230)	95.1 to 99.3	91.2% (52)	81.3 to 97.2	0.04

Table 2: Compares VL to DL by number of DACs and number of attempts. As shown above, the success rate of DL falls sharply with each successive DAC, while the success rate of VL stays consistently higher. For patients requiring multiple attempts, VL demonstrated a higher success rate at each attempt. DACs, Difficult airway characteristics; DL, direct laryngoscope/laryngoscopy; VL, Video laryngoscope/laryngoscopy.

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