A short cut review was carried out to establish whether there are significant differences in the performance of emergency physicians and anaesthetists when carrying out rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the emergency department. A total of 407 papers were found of which 12 presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results, and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that there is little or no difference in the rates of success and complications between emergency department clinicians and anaesthetists performing RSI.