More than 1.5 million patients undergo endotracheal intubation each year in the U.S. Endotracheal intubation can be complicated by hypoxemia, which is a known risk factor for peri-intubation cardiac arrest and death. Rapid sequence intubation typically involves a delay of up to 2 minutes between the administration of sedative/paralytic medications and laryngoscopy. In this podcast, we discuss a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggests critically ill patients may benefit from bag-mask ventilation during the period between medication administration and laryngoscopy.
