Intubation is a common procedure in hospitals, approximately 13 - 20 million people get intubated each year in the United States. The process of intubation is quite simple; a doctor would use a laryngoscope to guide an endotracheal tube (ETT) into the mouth, voicebox, and then the trachea. The ETT keeps the airway open so the lungs can get air. Intubation is almost always used before surgery, but in an emergency, it can be really useful. There are many reasons why a patient would need to be intubated, some of them include airway obstruction, cardiac arrest, injury/trauma to the neck, loss of consciousness, and breathing failure/apnea. Even though intubation seems like a miracle procedure, many risks go along with it.
Some of the main risks of intubation are aspiration (fluid in the lungs), failure to secure the airway, infection, and tension pneumothorax. These side effects may sound dangerous, but the success rate of this procedure is 70%, which is very high when looking at the amount of people who get intubated each year. Intubation has one main goal: to make sure that the patient can breathe, but there are many different kinds of intubation such as
Endotracheal intubation - A tube is placed in the trachea through the mouth
Nasotracheal intubation - Passing the endotracheal tube through the naris, nasopharynx, then to the trachea
Nasogastric intubation - A tube is inserted into the nose, through the esophagus, and down into the stomach
Fiberoptic intubation - A flexible endoscope with a tracheal tube attached to it is passed through the glottis.
Surgical airway - Emergency procedures used in emergencies when a doctor cannot perform any of the kinds of intubation listed above. These procedures are:
Tracheostomy - A procedure in which an opening into the trachea is created from the outside of the neck
Cricothyroidotomy - The placement of a tube through an incision in the cricothyroid membrane
All these types of intubation have one thing in common: the use of anesthesia. Anesthesia is a prevalent drug that is meant to relieve the patient of any physical pain that they may have, it is most commonly used during surgery. Like any other medical procedure, anesthesia does have risks such as postoperative delirium/cognitive dysfunction, malignant hyperthermia, and breathing difficulties (if used during surgery). When people see all these risks of both anesthesia and intubation, they would most likely be scared to go undergo the procedures, but they save lives. So is it worth it? Yes. It is always good to be aware of the risks, but in the end, tens of millions of successful procedures are done each year.
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Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board