Emergency Medical Minute

Contributor: Aaron Lessen MD Educational Pearls: Is the adage, “GCS of 8, you’ve got to intubate” accurate? A recent study published in the November 2023 issue of JAMA attempted to answer this question. Design Multicenter, randomized trial, in France from 2021 to 2023. 225 patients experiencing comatose in the setting of acute poisoning were randomly assigned to either a conservative airway strategy of withholding intubation or “routine practice” of much more frequent intubation. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint including in-hospital death, length of intensive care unit stay, and length of hospital stay. Secondary outcomes included adverse events from intubation and pneumonia within 48 hours. Results Results showed that in the intervention group (with intubation withholding), only 16% of patients were intubated, compared to 58% in the control group. No in-hospital deaths occurred in either group. The intervention group demonstrated a significant clinical benefit for the primary end