Assessing the risk of nosocomial infection posed by COVID-19 tracheal intubation: the first intubateCOVID results

Abstract

[Extract] We congratulate El-Boghdadly et al. [1] for their timely and important study investigating the risk to clinicians of nosocomial infection from performing tracheal intubations in patients with COVID-19. The primary outcome (which included laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection or the need to self-isolate due to respiratory symptoms) is pragmatic and reflects the actual impact of absence on the hospital workforce. However, many readers would be more interested in knowing to what extent performing tracheal intubation directly exposes them to the risk of contracting COVID-19. Our discussions with colleagues suggest that many have inferred a high risk of infection from this study, although the authors did not make this claim.