• R J Taylor, G Smurthwaite, I Mehmood, G B Kitchen, and R D Baker.
• Department of Medical Physics, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust (SRFT), Salford, UK.
• Anaesthesia. 2015 Jan 1; 70 (1): 18-25.

AbstractWe describe the development and laboratory assessment of a refined prototype tactile feedback device for the safe and accurate application of cricoid pressure. We recruited 20 operating department practitioners and compared their performance of cricoid pressure on a training simulator using both the device and a manual unaided technique. The device significantly reduced the spread of the applied force: average (SE) root mean squared error decreased from 8.23 (0.48) N to 5.23 (0.32) N (p < 0.001). The average (SE) upwards bias in applied force also decreased, from 2.30 (0.74) N to 0.88 (0.48) N (p < 0.01). Most importantly, the percentage of force applications that deviated from target by more than 10 N decreased from 18% to 7% (p < 0.01). The device requires no prior training, is cheap to manufacture, is single-use and requires no power to operate, whilst ensuring that the correct force is always consistently applied. © 2014 The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

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