The importance of usage guidance from anesthesiologists when disseminating video laryngoscopes throughout emergency departments and intensive care units

Abstract

Many anesthesiologists use the video laryngoscopes (Airway scope (Pentax Co., Tokyo, Japan) or McGRATH MAC (Aircraft Medical Lt., Edinburgh, UK)) as their first choice during intubation in Japan. On the other hand, video laryngoscopes are not as widely used among emergency and intensive care physicians other than anesthesiologists at our hospital. We therefore distributed a questionnaire on video laryngoscopes to 12 physicians not including anesthesiologists from the emergency department and intensive care unit at our hospital. When we asked which intubation device was used as the first choice during endotracheal intubation, all 12 physicians responded that they used the Macintosh laryngoscope, and none used video laryngoscopes. We then asked these physicians whether they were aware of any studies on the usefulness of video laryngoscopy (Airway scope) in cases where intubation is difficult [1] or in cases of restricted cervical spine mobility [2], and found that all 12 physicians knew of such research. The most common reasons for not using video laryngoscopes as the first choice were lack of skill and insufficient experience. When asked whether they would be more tempted to use video laryngoscopes if they received guidance on their use from anesthesiologists, all 12 physicians responded that they would indeed be more tempted to use them. Now that the usefulness of video laryngoscopes has been revealed and the dissemination of these devices has been achieved throughout the field of anaesthesiology, we believe that it is important for anesthesiologists to provide guidance on the use of video laryngoscopes in order to next disseminate these devices throughout the field of emergency and intensive care.