Definitions
An attempt was defined as an airway maneuver, which commenced with the
insertion of the laryngoscope blade (conventional) into the mouth of the
patient and ended with the removal of the blade.11Successful airway management was defined as the placement of an
endotracheal tube in the trachea via orally, confirmed based on chest
elevation, auscultation, second independent laryngoscopy, carbon dioxide
detection, and/or chest radiography.11 First-attempt
success was defined as successful intubation by the first practitioner
on the first attempt. Multiple-attempt success was defined as the
requirement of over two attempts (≥3) for successful intubation. The
requirement for single, double, or multiple attempts for successful
intubation was defined as all intubation attempts. Severe oxygen
desaturation during intubation was defined as a decrease of ≥20% in
oxygen saturation relative to the highest level of oxygen saturation
recorded prior to the first attempt.11 Bradycardia was
defined as a heart rate of <100 beats per minute. Physiological
instability was defined as severe desaturation (a decrease of
to pre-laryngoscopy) or bradycardia (a heart rate of <100 beats
per minute) during the intubation attempts. Hatch et
al.12 defined practitioners as experienced if they had
performed more than 40 previous intubations. Based on this knowledge and
our NICU conditions, those who performed >35 previous
intubations were considered experienced practitioners.