• U Winklmaier, K Wüst, and F Wallner.
• Hals-Nasen-Ohrenklinik, Universität Heidelberg. ursula.winklmaier@med.uni-heidelberg.de
• HNO. 2005 Dec 1;53(12):1057-62.

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to evaluate leakage of liquids in terms of water and artificially produced saliva past low-pressure cuffs of tracheal tubes.MethodsThree different types of tracheal tubes, TRACOE vario, Rüsch Ultra-Tracheoflex, and Portex Blue Line Ultra, were tested in isolated pig tracheas by infusing 6 ml of water or artificially produced saliva over the cuff and measuring the volume of fluid leaking past the cuff after 5, 10, and 15 min.ResultsThe leakage in the saliva experiments was significantly lower than in the water experiments (p < 0.05). The amount of leakage between the three different types of tubes showed statistically significant (p < 0.05) results. There was no statistically significant difference between tracheal tubes of 7 and 8 mm internal diameter.ConclusionThe present laboratory findings suggest that the three tracheal tubes studied will not guard against aspiration of water but they will prevent the leakage of artificial saliva to a great extent.

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