Endotracheal intubation (ETI) in critically ill patients is a potentially life-threatening procedure and approximately one-third of ETIs is complicated by severe hypoxia, cardiovascular collapse and cardiac arrest. Critically ill are prone to severe complications as the consequence of the underlying acute respiratory failure or hemodynamic instability, reduced oxygen stores and increased oxygen consumption. Moreover, the rate of difficult airway management may be higher in the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the Emergency Department (ED), prolonging the apnea time and the risk of desaturation. Finally, operator’s skills, procedures, devices and drugs, among others, may influence airway management success and patient’s outcome. Despite the high risk of the procedure, different interventions lack high-quality evidence and we hypothesize that a heterogeneous practice among different centres and geographical areas may be found . This project aims to prospectively collect data on the current impact of ETI-related adverse events and current airway management practice in critically ill patients. This is an observational multi-centre international cohort study from different centres (at least 180 centres) all over the world. Each centre has to collect data of 20 endotracheal intubations over a maximum period of 8 weeks.

Objectives of the study

a) The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of intubation-related adverse events in critically ill patients.