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Airway & ventilation
Ultrasound tube confirmation: thin evidence on the road
Point-of-care ultrasound for confirming endotracheal tube placement in prehospital and critical care transport: a scoping review
Internal and Emergency Medicine · 2026-10-26 · Added 30 October 2026
A scoping review of 51 studies on point-of-care ultrasound for confirming endotracheal tube placement in prehospital and critical care transport found only one primary study of diagnostic accuracy in actual out-of-hospital patients and none measuring patient-oriented outcomes.
- Study type
- Systematic review
- Design
- Scoping review (Joanna Briggs Institute framework, PRISMA-ScR)
- Participants
- 51 studies from 2,447 records
- Main finding
- Only one of 51 included studies evaluated diagnostic performance in adult patients in an out-of-hospital setting; no included study measured patient-oriented outcomes
- Caveat
- Most included work is cadaver, simulation, training and feasibility studies rather than diagnostic accuracy in transported patients
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Ultrasound isn't carried on every Australian ambulance and intubation is an advanced-practice skill in most services — and the review shows the out-of-hospital evidence base behind in-hospital accuracy figures simply doesn't exist yet.
Learning goal
Weigh the reliability of ultrasound for confirming endotracheal tube placement when verifying intubation in the prehospital setting.
More
- Topic: Airway & ventilation
- Daily scan: 30 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 30 October 2026
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