Efficacy of High Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen to Reduce Desaturation During Tracheal Intubation

Tracheal intubation of critically ill patients is associated in the intensive care unit (ICU) with significant complications and morbidity. Patient desaturation is one of the most common complications that may lead to cardiac arrest despite pre-intubation oxygenation. Preoxygenation can be improved by the use of non-invasive ventilation, but this technique can be cumbersome to implement in the context of urgent intubation and more importantly it does not insure oxygenation during intubation. High flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy is a technique that has been shown to improve patient oxygenation in the context of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. It bears the potential to be of clinical benefit in the setting of tracheal intubation in the ICU to ensure patient safety. The purpose of this study is to compare pre- and per-intubation (during intubation) oxygenation with either a conventional high FiO2 oxygen bag reservoir facemask (current standard practice) or high flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy (new practice to be implemented in our ICU).