Neuromuscular blocking agents play a significant role in improving the success rate for urgent intubation, although there is limited evidence about the effect on subsequent outcomes, such as the incidence of tracheostomy.

In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to examine the association between avoidance of neuromuscular blocking agents for urgent tracheal intubation and incidence of tracheostomy among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The setting of this study was an eight-bed ICU at a tertiary-care hospital in Okayama, Japan.

We included patients who underwent urgent tracheal intubation at the emergency department or the ICU and were admitted to the ICU between April 2013 and November 2017.

We extracted data on methods and medications of intubation, predictors for difficult intubation, Cormack-Lehane grade, patient demographics, primary diagnoses, reintubation.

We estimated odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals for elective tracheostomy during the ICU stay using logistic regression models.

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