MS#20 Airtraq placement first technique may shorten endotracheal intubation time

Y Imashuku H Kitagawa Y Ishikawa
Department of Anaesthesiology, Shiga University of Medical Science Japan

The authors describe an optional technique which may shorten endotracheal intubation time:

They speculated that positioning the Airtraq first, and then advancing the tracheal tube via the lateral channel may shorten intubation time. Therefore, they compared the time required for tracheal tube placement in a manikin using this latter technique and compared it to the time taken to intubate with the conventional Airtraq technique.

All attempts resulted in successful tracheal intubation with smooth tube advancement along the lateral channel. The results showed that less time was required to achieve tracheal intubation by positioning the Airtraq first, compared with the conventional technique (8.5±0.5 s vs. 16.6 ±2.4 s respectively, mean±SD, P=0.001, using Student’s Test.

Therefore, the authors speculate that positioning the Airtraq first may be helpful in patients requiring urgent tracheal intubation

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