r/emergencymedicine • u/Radiant_Alchemist • 22d ago

Advice Will Video Laryngoscopy become the norm?

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.

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u/AgtHoliday ED Attending 22d ago

I get that VL is more likely to be successful, and faster. But I’ve seen video fail for lots of reasons - soiled airway, technology failure at the critical moment. So DL is supposed to be your backup when the airway is difficult or the tech breaks or isn’t available.

I learned on DL and there’s way more technique to it. I think you’re setting yourself up for some terrifying situations when you say that the method that’s a lot more difficult, that you never really learned how to do well, and that you never practice because it would be a violation of standard of care to do so, is your backup plan for when the SHTF.

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u/ProtectionPolitics4 22d ago

You can have multiple VL modalities. So power truly going out should be the only excuse.