TY - JOUR T1 - Primary survey JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J SP - 177 LP - 177 DO - 10.1136/emj.2011.111963 VL - 28 IS - 3 AU - Geoff Hughes Y1 - 2011/03/01 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/28/3/177.abstract N2 - This month we have two complementary papers on advanced airway management.The first, from Jonathan Benger in Bristol, reports the results of a survey into drug assisted intubation in emergency departments during a 2-week period in 2008 (see page 217). The results may not be a surprise to seasoned readers but they are still something to be noted and are summarised in the paper's abstract—namely that ‘the 0.12% incidence of ED RSI is consistent with previous studies, as is the finding that only 20% are performed by emergency physicians. The relative infrequency of ED RSI and increasing pool of staff has important implications for training and skills maintenance. Despite the acknowledged difficulty of this technique nearly half of all ED RSIs are done by unsupervised trainees’.The second paper, from Tim Harris and David Lockey in London, reports on the skills of doctors who perform prehospital intubation (see page 225). This is an important piece of work because, … ER -