In critically ill adult patients, the use of a tracheal tube introducer or bougie, followed by insertion of an endotracheal tube (ETT), has been found to have a first-attempt intubation success rate similar to an ETT with stylet.
The findings come from a multicenter, prospective, randomized clinical trial (JAMA doi:10.1001/jama.2021.22002) that is a follow-on study to a previous single-center trial (JAMA 2018;319[21]:2179-2189). The initial trial “showed that the use of a bougie resulted