Comparison of direct laryngoscopy and video laryngoscopy success after standardized manikin training in medical students

INTRODUCTION: Endotracheal intubation is essential for emergency airway management, assisting ventilation and oxygenation by allowing airway patency. As an alternative to direct laryngoscopy (DL) the use of video laryngoscopy (VL) is now advocated by many operators, especially to manage the difficult airway (DA). This study was aimed to compare DL and Scoper® VL on normal and difficult airway.
METHODS: We conducted a crossover trial comparing DL and VL on difficult and normal airway (NA). 20 volunteer medical students from university of xxx who had not received intubation training before enrolled. After training sessions, the volunteers performed at four different independent stations (direct laryngoscopy on normal and difficult airway scenarios, video laryngoscopy on normal and difficult airway scenarios) in a completely randomised manner on the next day. Primary outcome was first-pass success rate, with secondary outcomes of time to intubation, number of intubation attempts, user satisfaction and procedural difficulty by Visual Analog Scale (VAS).
RESULTS: 20 volunteers were included in the study. When the first-pass success rate was examined, the highest success rates were found with VL. There was no statistically significant difference detected in terms of time to intubation, user satisfaction with the intervention or procedural difficulty. No other statistically significant differences were found between four scenarios in other pairwise comparisons (p <0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Although the first pass success rates were better with VL, it was not superior to DL. Further studies should be planned involving Scoper® in conjunction with other video laryngoscopes to evaluate efficacy.