Critical Care Series by new ALiEM writer Dr. Todd Seigel

Welcome a new superstar blogger, Dr. Todd Seigel (@ToddSeigelMD), to the ever-growing ALiEM team. I first met Todd at the recent Society of Academic Emergency Medicine meeting. At that time, he was an already established clinician-scholar-educator at Brown University. He had already graduated from residency and was returning to fellowship training to get his board-certification in Critical Care Medicine. I’m thrilled that he is now at my home institution (UCSF) doing this fellowship, where I couldn’t resist recruiting him to join our all-star cast of blog authors. Today is the first of hopefully a long series of critical care/resuscitation topics that are practically relevant for all practicing emergency physicians.

Paucis Verbis: Delayed sequence intubation

A 40-year-old man presents with significant agitation and severe respiratory distress from a COPD exacerbation. His oxygen saturation is 75% on room air, and he has diffuse, tight wheezes on exam. You prepare to intubate the patient using a rapid sequence induction protocol: etomidate, succinylcholine, 8-0 endotracheal tube.

Or do you?

This pocket card discusses the delayed sequence intubation (DSI) protocol made famous by Dr. Scott Weingart and Dr. Rich Levitan.¹ Thanks to Dr. Michelle Reina (EM resident at Univ of Utah) and Dr. Rob (Intermountain Medical Center in Utah) for designing this helpful card. Rob has even implemented a DSI protocol in his ED.

The card breaks down the reasoning and steps behind DSI. Anecdotally, ketamine has often calmed patients down enough during the preoxygenation phase to enhance oxygenation/ventilation so much so that intubation is not required.

PV Card: Delayed Sequence Intubation (DSI)

Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Reference

Weingart S, Levitan R. Preoxygenation and prevention of desaturation during emergency airway management. Ann Emerg Med. 2012;59(3):165-75.e1. [PubMed]