Will Video Laryngoscopy become the norm?

[u/Radiant_Alchemist]

I love VL. They make standard laryngoscopes look brutal. They're less traumatizing, they give a better view, they have a better first-pass success. Sure you need to learn direct laryngoscopy but let's say in 5 years from now will they be used as routine in OR and ER intubations? Or will they be saved for hard cases?

I've been told that the equipment tends to suck and that we won't have VL as available as in the current department that I'm working so I should stick to Macintosh and McCoy.

[u/DadBods96]

The paradigm I was trained under is that Video Laryngoscopy is considered Standard of Care if available.

When will it matter? Only under a circumstance where a patient had a poor outcome such as coding from prolonged hypoxemia due to a difficult intubation, or anoxic brain injury. If you get sued, and you documented that you attempted direct laryngoscopy first, you’re SOL because you didn’t adhere to standard of care. The expert witness for the plaintiff will argue that you had a modality available with a higher first-pass success rate and lower blade-to-tube time and chose not to utilize it, and led to the patient’s outcome. Will it be true? Probably not. Will the jury care that you were in a difficult airway situation and the modality that saves 10 seconds wasn’t gonna matter? Definitely not.

Which is why every department should stock the Mac blade attachments for the Glidescope rather than just the hyperangulated blades.