• Mikael Gellerfors, Christer Svensén, Joacim Linde, Hans Morten Lossius, and Dan Gryth.
• Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Department of Clinical Science and Education, Karolinska Institutet/Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Mil Med. 2015 Sep 1; 180 (9): 1006-10.

BackgroundSecuring the airway by endotracheal intubation (ETI) is a key issue in prehospital critical care. Night vision goggles (NVG) are used by personnel operating in low-light environments. We examined the feasibility of an anesthesiologist performed ETI using NVG in a helicopter setting.MethodsTwelve anesthesiologists performed ETI on a manikin in an emergency room (ER) setting and two helicopter settings, with randomization to either rotary wing daylight (RW-D) or rotary wing in total darkness using binocular NVG (RW-NVG). Primary endpoint was intubation time. Secondary endpoints included success rate, Cormack-Lehane (CL) score, and subjective difficulty according to the Visual Analoge Scale (VAS).ResultsThe median intubation time was shorter for the RW-D compared to the RW-NVG setting (16.5 seconds vs. 30.0 seconds; p = 0,03). We found no difference in median intubation time for the ER and RW-D settings (16.8 seconds vs. 16.5 seconds; p = 0.91). For all scenarios, success rate was 100%. CL and VAS varied between the ER setting (CL 1.8, VAS 2.8), RW-D setting (CL 2.0, VAS 3.0), and RW-NVG setting (CL 3.0, VAS 6.5).ConclusionThis study suggests that anesthesiologists successfully and quickly can perform ETI in a helicopter setting both in daylight and in darkness using binocular NVG, but with shorter intubation times in daylight.Reprint & Copyright © 2015 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

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