Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is
located on the World Wide Web at:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/12/05/peds.2012-0802
abstract
OBJECTIVE: Endotracheal intubation of newborn infants is a common
and potentially lifesaving procedure but a skill that trainees nd
difcult. Despite widespread use, no data are available on whether
the use of a stylet (introducer) improves success rates. We aimed to
determine whether pediatric trainees were more successful at neonatal orotracheal intubation when a stylet was used.
METHODS: An unblinded randomized controlled trial conducted between July 2006 and January 2009 at a tertiary perinatal center,
the Royal Womens Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Eligible participants
were newborn infants in the delivery room or NICU requiring endotracheal intubation for respiratory support. Infants were intubated by
pediatric residents or fellows. Infants were randomized to have the
procedure performed by using either an endotracheal tube alone or
with a stylet. Successful intubation at the rst attempt assessed by
colorimetric detection of expired carbon dioxide was the primary
outcome.
CONCLUSIONS: Using an endotracheal stylet did not signicantly improve the success rate of pediatric trainees at neonatal orotracheal
intubation. Pediatrics 2013;131:e198e205
e198
KAMLIN et al
ARTICLE
METHODS
Patients and Study Design
This single-center randomized controlled study was conducted between
July 2006 and January 2009 at the Royal
Womens Hospital (RWH), Melbourne,
Australia. RWH is a tertiary perinatal
center with 6500 births and 300
infants ,1500 g admitted to the NICU
each year. Doctors perform all intubations. Junior medical staff are on-site
24 hours a day with a consultant on call
after hours. Generally, residents have
no previous intubation experience,
whereas fellows have at least 12 months
experience of neonatal intensive care.
All neonatal staff attending deliveries
complete a resuscitation program based
on International Liaison Committee on
Resuscitation18 and Australian Resuscitation Council19 guidelines. The residents are taught orotracheal intubation.
The duration of an attempt is determined
by the infants heart rate (HR) (.100
beats per minute considered acceptable) rather than a time limit.
Infants who were briey intubated for
suctioning of meconium from the trachea were not eligible because of difculty conrming correct ETT placement.
All other infants requiring orotracheal
intubation were eligible for study inclusion.
For emergency rst intubations (dened as intubation in the delivery room
[DR] or within 24 hours after birth),
a waiver of consent was used to enroll
infants and retrospective consent
obtained as per Australian National
Health and Medical Research Council
guidelines for studies in emergency
medicine.20 Consent to use data were
sought from the parents as soon as
possible after the intubation. Infants
who were intubated in the NICU after
the rst day were eligible if written
parental consent had been obtained.
When parents were approached, permission was sought to use data from
e199
e200
RESULTS
Seven hundred thirteen infants were
intubated in either the DR or NICU
during the study period; 481 were not
enrolled (Fig 1). The 232 enrolled infants had 325 separate intubation episodes. However, 21 attempts in the
NICU were not randomized. There were
KAMLIN et al
ARTICLE
FIGURE 1
when not. This difference was not statistically signicant: 67% versus 53%,
odds ratio 1.8 (95% condence interval
0.843.84).
e201
Stylet (N = 149)
No Stylet (N = 153)
925 (6891473)
28.5 (5.0)
75 (50)
80 (54)
7 (6-8)
93 (62)
862 (7141586)
28.7 (5.2)
78 (51)
77 (50)
7 (6-8)
97 (64)
149 (30)
128 (36)
86 (58)
76 (51)
145 (34)
121 (37)
92 (60)
80 (52)
Stylet
No Stylet
OR (95% CI)
85/149 (57)
81/153 (53)
1.18 (0.751.86)
38/72 (53)
47/77 (61)
40/74 (54)
41/79 (52)
0.95 (0.501.82)
1.45 (0.772.74)
22/33 (67)
63/116 (54)
29/41 (71)
52/112 (46)
0.83 (0.312.22)
1.37 (0.822.31)
40/75 (53)
45/74 (61)
46/77 (60)
35/76 (46)
0.77 (0.411.47)
1.82 (0.953.48)
CI, condence interval; OR, odds ratio. Data are presented as n (%) and ORs with 95% CI.
Stylet (n = 149)
No Stylet (n = 153)
33 (11)
116 (38)
41 (14)
112 (37)
15 (5)
48 (17)
77 (28)
16 (6)
39 (14)
85 (30)
DISCUSSION
This is the rst randomized study to
investigate the use of a stylet to facilitate orotracheal intubation of the
newborn infant. The use of an ETT with
a stylet did not improve overall rates of
intubation success by pediatric trainees. Results were consistent across
subgroups based on site of intubation
(DR or NICU) and infant size. There were
no serious side effects attributable to
the stylet.
Our results are similar to others who
have reported success rates of intubations by pediatric residents between
KAMLIN et al
ARTICLE
FIGURE 2
Box plot (median, IQR, and range) demonstrating the duration of intubation attempts.
FIGURE 3
A, Changes in SpO2 from baseline to lowest documented level during intubation attempts (median, IQR,
and range). B, Changes in HR from baseline to lowest documented level during intubation attempts
(median, IQR, and range).
e203
infant35 and cardiac arrest,16 and falsepositives may occur after either intratracheal adrenaline or surfactant administration.36 The risk of misleading
Pedicap readings, however, would be
represented equally in both groups, so
this is unlikely to be a source of bias.
A strength of our study is the large
proportion of infants weighing ,1000 g
enrolled because these are the largest
group of neonates being intubated in
most neonatal units in the developed
world. Another strength is that half
were randomized in the DR, which is
where most infants are intubated. This
would not have been possible without
our hospitals Human Research and
Ethics Committee approving this as
a study of emergency medicine and
permitting the use of a waiver of consent.20
The Neonatal Resuscitation Program
suggests time limits to minimize physiologic instability during intubation
attempts.11 Less than a quarter of intubation attempts were completed
CONCLUSION
The use of an endotracheal stylet did not
improve success rates of pediatric
trainees intubating newborns.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Drs Dawson, Kamlin, and ODonnell are
past recipients of a RWH Postgraduate
Scholarship. Dr Davis is a recipient of
a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner
Fellowship, and Dr Dawson is a recipient of an NHMRC Post Doctoral Fellowship. Drs Davis and Morley held an
Australian NHMRC Program grant
384100.
REFERENCES
1. Perlman JM, Wyllie J, Kattwinkel J, et al;
Neonatal Resuscitation Chapter Collaborators. Part 11: Neonatal resuscitation:
2010 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency
Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations. Circulation. 2010;
122(16 suppl 2):S516S538
2. Richmond S, Wyllie J. European Resuscitation
Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2010
Section 7. Resuscitation of babies at birth.
Resuscitation. 2010;81(10):13891399
3. Richmond S, Wylllie J. Newborn Life Support. 3rd ed. London, UK: Resuscitation
Council; 2011
4. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health. A Framework of Competences for
Level 1 Training in Paediatrics. London, UK:
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health ; 2008
5. Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
General Paediatrics; Advanced Training Curriculum. Sydney, Australia: Royal Australasian
e204
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
KAMLIN et al
ARTICLE
e205
Citations
Post-Publication
Peer Reviews (P3Rs)
Reprints