Experience with intubated patients does not affect the accidental extubation rate in pediatric intensive care units and intensive care nurseries.

Accidental extubation is a potentially serious event for pediatric or neonatal patients with respiratory failure, especially in clinical settings in which personnel capable of performing reintubation may not be readily available. Thus the rate of accidental extubation in small intensive care units that operate without 24-hour in-house physician availability may be an important quality assurance indicator. The objective of this study were to determine the accidental extubation rate at a single small pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and compare it with published reports. This study was carried out in a six-bed PICU at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, with a relatively low level of patient acuity, as measured by PRISM score and the frequency of intubation, and without 24-hour in-house physician availability. All intubated patients admitted during the 5-year period from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 1993 were included. The primary outcome measure was the occurrence of accidental extubation. We observed only two accidental extubations in 1,749 intubated-patient-days (IPD) (0.114 accidental extubations/100 IPD [95% confidence interval 0.014-0.413 accidental extubations/ 100 IPD]). This rate of accidental extubation was compared with data in published reports from neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and PICUs, which ranged from 0.14 accidental extubations/100 IPD to 4.36 accidental extubations/100 IPD. The dependence of the observed accidental extubation rate on unit size and institutional experience with intubated patients, as measured by the average number of intubated patients, was examined. We found no evidence that the accidental extubation rate is higher in smaller units or units with less institutional experience. Low rates can be achieved in small units with low acuity.