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Across diverse critical care topics, propensity score studies published in high-impact journals produced results that were generally consistent with the findings of randomized clinical trials. However, caution is needed when interpreting propensity score studies because occasionally their results contradict those of randomized clinical trials and there is no reliable way to predict disagreements.

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We evaluated the effect of body mass index (BMI) on intubation success rates and complications during emergency airway management. We retrospectively analyzed an airway registry at an academic medical center. The primary outcomes were the incidence of difficult intubation and complication rates, stratified by BMI. We captured 1,075 (98 %, 1,075/1,102; 95 % CI 97-99) intubations. Four hundred twenty-six patients (40 %) had a normal BMI, 289 (27 %) were overweight, 261 (25 %) were obese, and 77 (7 %) were morbidly obese. In a multivariate analysis, obesity (OR 1.90; 95 % CI 1.04-3.45; p = 0.04), but not morbid obesity (OR 2.18; 95 % CI 0.95-4.99; p = 0.07), predicted difficult intubation. BMI was not predictive of post-intubation complications. Airway management in the morbidly obese differed when compared with lean patients, with less use of rapid sequence intubation and increased use of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the former. During emergency airway management, difficult intubation is more common in obese patients, and morbidly obese patients are more commonly treated as potentially difficult airways.