A national Internet survey on rapid sequence intubation patterns from Turkey

AIM: To determine which specialty was performing rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the emergency departments and to determine drug preferences of emergency physicians during RSI in Turkey. METHOD: All emergency departments were contacted via e-mail, and the chiefs of the departments were requested to answer a survey consisting of six questions. Hospitals within the specified regions were selected with the only inclusion criteria being that the hospital had an emergency medicine department. We determined that there were 32 university and 9 state hospital emergency medicine residency programs. RESULTS: Thirty-five emergency departments responded. In 31 (73%) departments emergency medicine physicians, in 4 (10%) departments anesthetists, and in 7 (17%) departments physicians of either specialty were routinely performing RSI. The most commonly preferred drugs were fentanyl for premedication, vecuronium for defasciculation, etomidate for induction, and succinylcholine for neuromuscular blocking. CONCLUSION: In the majority of the emergency departments in Turkey, emergency medicine physicians perform the RSI; the anesthetists perform it in only a few departments.