Anaesthesia
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Editorial Comment
Cerebral oximetry: another blow to non-invasive monitoring?
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Nasotracheal intubation over a bougie vs. non-bougie intubation: a prospective randomised, controlled trial in older children and adults using videolaryngoscopy.
Conventionally, nasotracheal intubation has consisted of blind nasal passage and external manipulation of the tube through the glottis ('conventional technique'), a technique associated with a high incidence of nasal trauma. We evaluated a novel technique for routine asleep (i.e. post-induction) nasotracheal intubation using a bougie ('bougie technique'), which uses a nasopharyngeal airway to guide a paediatric bougie nasotracheally for use as a Seldinger tracheal intubation guide. Two hundred and fifty-seven older children (> 8 years) and adults were randomly assigned to videolaryngoscopy-assisted nasotracheal intubation using either the conventional or the bougie technique. ⋯ The severity of bleeding was also significantly less with the bougie technique, with an OR for active bleeding of 0.42 (95%CI 0.20-0.87; p = 0.020) at 60-90 s and 0.15 (95%CI 0.06-0.37; p < 0.0001) at 5 min. Magill forceps were needed significantly less often with the bougie technique (9% vs. 28%, p = 0.0001) and there was no difference in first attempt and overall success rates between the two techniques (p = 0.133 and p = 0.750, respectively). Not only is nasal intubation over a bougie as successful as the conventional technique, it also significantly decreases both the incidence and severity of nasopharyngeal trauma, as well as the need for the use of Magill forceps.
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Review Meta Analysis
Videolaryngoscopy vs. direct laryngoscopy use by experienced anaesthetists in patients with known difficult airways: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Experienced anaesthetists can be confronted with difficult or failed tracheal intubations. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to ascertain if the literature indicated if videolaryngoscopy conferred an advantage when used by experienced anaesthetists managing patients with a known difficult airway. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials up to 1 January 2017. ⋯ Use of videolaryngoscopy was associated with a significantly better view of the glottis (Cormack and Lehane grades 1 and 2 vs. 3-4, OR 0.04 (95%CI 0.01-0.15); p < 0.00001). Mucosal trauma occurred less with the use of videolaryngoscopy (OR 0.16 (95%CI 0.04-0.75); p = 0.02). Videolaryngoscopy has added value for the experienced anaesthetist, improving first-time success, the view of the glottis and reducing mucosal trauma.