Safety sequence intubation: the 10 “P’s” algorithm and cognitive aid for airway management in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

The past few months have shown an increasing incidence of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from patients to health care providers (HCPs). Figures from China's National Health Commission show that more than 3300 HCP’s had been infected as of early March. In Italy, 20% of responding health-care workers were infected.[1] It is important to protect staff from transmission during high-risk procedures like tracheal intubation. The cognitive aid (Fig. 1) formulated, suggests the following 10 P’s as a series of steps for safety sequence intubation in Coronavirus Disease (COVID) 19 patients, with the intent to simplify the substantial amount of information currently related to COVID-19 in scientific literature.