Retrospective data out of the ketamine vs. etomidate prospective survival study.
Doesn’t prove anything – and it makes me want to go back and look at the original ketamine vs etomidate article to see if difficulty of intubation was included as a demographic factor – and, I wish this study indicated which sedative medication was used as well.
In any event, the more complicated an intubation was, the more likely there were complications with the intubation. And, further down the road, more patients who had intubation complications were deceased at the end of their follow-up period. Things that predicted complications during procedure included age, illness severity, BMI, specific medical disorders, respiratory distress, and difficult intubation.
Nothing here changes practice – since intubation is not an elective procedure. This is more a recognition that, yet again, sick people die.