Covid-19 Airway Management

Approximately 5-10% of all patients affected by COVID-19 develop severe respiratory distress.
This has already involved hundreds of people in Ontario and thousands worldwide. In this
situation, support with a mechanical ventilator is required. The first essential step to
provide this support is to insert a breathing tube in the patent's trachea (windpipe), a
process called 'endotracheal intubation' or more broadly, 'airway management'. While a
fundamental lifesaving resource, endotracheal intubation in COVID-19 patents is a highly
specialized procedure that carries risk both to patents and attending healthcare providers as
follows. a) Clinicians involved in airway management for patients with coronaviruses are at
extremely high risk of infection due to aerosol and droplet exposure during the procedure. b)
Rapid administration of drugs that put the patent to sleep is usually required for prompt and
safe endotracheal intubation. However, in physiologically compromised patents,
life-threatening side-effects may occur, such as very low oxygen levels (in as many as 70% of
patients), low blood pressure (18-22% of patients), and cardiac arrest (2%); these can
significantly affect outcomes. No definitive data are presently available to accurately
quantify the risk posed by such procedures to healthcare professionals and patents, nor the
associated factors. We have developed a retrospective study reviewing data all airway
management related SAEs in COVID 19 patients (between April and July 2020); hypoxemia,
hypotension and cardiac arrest within 15 min of intubation. Additionally, we are going to
prospectively interview Airway Management Team members that were involved in the airway
management of COVID19 patients in the period described above, in order to assess whether they
developed signs and symptoms and/or a confirmed COVID19 infection. This prospective interview
component is starting in December 2020.