Immediate actions
- Bag with 100% O₂/PEEP if unstable and appropriate.
- Check tube depth, chest rise, waveform EtCO₂, and breath sounds.
- Suction the tube; look for kink, bite, mucus, blood, or mainstem.
Skip to airway content
Rescue pathway
Hypoxia after intubation
DOPES plus immediate oxygenation.
Likely buckets
- Displacement/mainstem/esophageal tube.
- Obstruction: tube, secretions, blood, bronchospasm.
- Pneumothorax, severe shunt/ARDS, pulmonary edema.
- Equipment/circuit/oxygen source failure.
- Stacked breaths/auto-PEEP in obstructive disease.