CS#30 Successful intubation of a child with Goldenhar syndrome

Anesthesia & Analgesia March 2011 • Volume 112 • Number 3
Gildasio S. de Oliveira, MD, Paul C. Fitzgerald, MS, RN, Rena Beckerly, MD, MBA,
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine – Chicago USA

Proficiency in tracheal intubation is a difficult skill to acquire, especially when using a rigid
laryngoscope. The authors compared success in tracheal intubation by novices using an optical laryngoscope with that achieved with a rigid laryngoscope.

Results: The success rate for tracheal intubation was higher using the optical laryngoscope compared with the rigid laryngoscope. 73% of the trainees using the optical laryngoscope successfully intubated both patients’ tracheas, compared
with only 13% of trainees using the rigid laryngoscope. The success of intubation at first laryngoscopy attempt was greater on the first patient attempted using the
optical laryngoscope.
In summary they state: We demonstrated that mannequin training and subsequent tracheal intubation performance using the Airtraq optical laryngoscope generate much higher rates of success of tracheal intubation than rigid laryngoscopy when using a Macintosh blade during the first two attempted intubations.

Download CS#30