Articles: intubation.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1988
A method of detecting oesophageal intubation or confirming tracheal intubation.
A method of testing the location of an endotracheal tube, in the trachea or oesophagus, was subjected to trial. The test involves drawing back on the plunger of a 50 ml syringe connected with airtight fittings to the endotracheal tube connector, with the endotracheal tube cuff deflated. ⋯ The method was 100% accurate in fifty intubations, 25 tracheal and 25 oesophageal. The technique has been in routine use by one author for several years without giving an incorrect answer and enthusiastic use by other authors is producing the same result.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1988
Criteria for estimating likelihood of difficulty of endotracheal intubation with the Macintosh laryngoscope.
Many anatomical factors in difficult intubation at direct laryngoscopy have been evaluated. Lateral radiographs were taken of nineteen patients in whom tracheal intubation proved particularly difficult, and fourteen patients whose intubation was reasonably straightforward. ⋯ A formula and graph have been derived to relate these variables with likelihood of difficulty, and a method has been described of applying this information at the bedside, without using X-ray examination, to estimate the likelihood of difficulty in intubating a new patient. Eighteen months' experience of the application of this clinical evaluation have so far found it reliable.