View clinical trials related to Difficult Intubation.
Filter by:To investigate if signal processing can detect subtle changes in speech production clinically relevant to oropharynx anatomy that may provide an objective measure in the assessment of the presumed difficulty of intubation.
The investigators plan to conduct a randomized trial comparing the intubation success rate and time of the King Vision Video Laryngoscope to the Glidescope video laryngoscope in order to demonstrate the comparability of the devices.
Awake tracheal intubation is the standard management for patients as risk for airway compromise. It is also commonly done in cases where there is significant cervical spine pathology i.e. cervical myelopathy or instability. The anesthetic technique used for the awake intubation is crucial to the patient's safety. One of the most important aspects of the anesthetic technique is airway anesthesia prior to placement of an endotracheal tube. The superior laryngeal nerve is responsible for mediating the cough reflex around the vocal cords. The investigators have developed an approach to reliably block the superior laryngeal nerve by injecting local anesthetic near the nerve in a unique approach. Injecting local anesthetic into or through the thyrohyoid membrane will effectively block the superior laryngeal nerve
It is essential that anaesthetists successfully perform orotracheal intubation in scenarios in which intubation is potentially more difficult, such as where anatomical characteristics predictive of difficult intubation are present. The CMAC® Laryngoscope is a new intubating device. It is designed to provide a view of the glottis without alignment of the oral, pharyngeal and tracheal axes. The CMAC may be especially effective in situations where intubation of the trachea is potentially difficult. The efficacy of this device in comparison to the traditional Macintosh laryngoscope and other novel laryngoscopes is not known. We aim to compare its performance to that of the Macintosh laryngoscope, the gold standard device, in patients with one or more anatomical characteristics predictive of difficult intubation. The investigators further aim to compare it to the Airtraq® device a device which has been shown to be superior to the Macintosh laryngoscope in previous trials. The investigators primary hypothesis is that, in the hands of experienced anaesthetists, time to intubation would be shorter using the CMAC than using the Macintosh laryngoscope in patients with two or more anatomical characteristics predictive of difficult intubation. The investigators further hypothesize that the Airtraq® will be superior the CMAC® with one or more anatomical characteristics predictive of difficult intubation.