We describe a case in which regional anaesthesia for Caesarean section was initially avoided because of the presence of systemic infection. However, attempted induction of general anaesthesia resulted in failed tracheal intubation and so an epidural catheter was sited and used for the operation. Awake fibreoptic tracheal intubation was performed after surgery, when it was clear that ventilatory...

Handling and efficacy of a new video-optical intubation stylet were assessed in a simulated difficult tracheal intubation setting and compared with a conventional malleable stylet. Forty-five anaesthetists performed 10 tracheal intubations using both techniques. Laryngoscopy was performed by the observer, who created a grade 3 view according the classification by Cormack and Lehane. The time ta...

BACKGROUND Paramedics are frequently required to perform tracheal intubation, a potentially life-saving manoeuvre in severely ill patients, in the prehospital setting. However, direct laryngoscopy is often more difficult in this environment, and failed tracheal intubation constitutes an important cause of morbidity. Novel indirect laryngoscopes, such as the Airtraq and Truview laryngoscopes may...

Tracheal intubation is an important procedure in anesthesia and emergency medicine. The standard intubation technique is direct laryngoscopy using a Macintosh blade; however, video laryngoscopy has become common and research has shown several advantages of video laryngoscopy over direct laryngoscopy. In the present study we investigated whether video laryngoscopy resulted in the intubating pers...

Twenty patients with severe pregnancy induced (PIH) or pregnancy aggravated (PAH) hypertension, undergoing general anaesthesia for Caesarean section were studied. All patients received a standard anaesthetic technique designed to control the potentially dangerous, reflex cardiovascular instability associated with laryngoscopy. The average increase in systolic arterial pressure (SAP) was 56.4 mm...

We report a case of acute upper airway obstruction caused by a rapidly expanding blood-filled bulla in the oropharynx (angina bullosa haemorrhagica), requiring tracheal intubation. The larynx could not be visualized by either awake fibreoptic laryngoscopy or direct laryngoscopy under anaesthesia. Surgical tracheostomy was therefore performed under general anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND One of the main challenges in anesthesiology is difficult intubation. There are many anatomical parameters for evaluating the feasibility of tracheal intubation; one that can reliably predict a difficult intubation is the Cormack-Lehane classification obtained during direct laryngoscopy. This is an invasive procedure that cannot be performed in an awake patient or for pre-anesthetic ...

BACKGROUND The C-MAC D-blade is a new, highly angulated, videolaryngoscope blade designed for use in patients with difficult airways. Directing a tracheal tube into the trachea with any indirect viewing laryngoscope can be difficult, even with a good view of the laryngeal inlet. OBJECTIVE To determine which introducing strategy is most suitable for use with the C-MAC D-blade videolaryngoscope...

We studied prospectively 800 paediatric patients undergoing repair of cleft lip and palate to determine the predictors of difficult laryngoscopy. The incidence of difficult laryngoscopy (Cormack and Lehane grade III and IV) was 2.95% in patients with unilateral cleft lip, 45.76% in bilateral cleft lip and 34.61% in patients with retrognathia. Tracheal intubation was successful in 99% of patient...

INTRODUCTION Since anesthesia complications associated with unexpected difficult airway are potentially catastrophic, they should be avoided. The modified Mallampati test and jaw-thrust maneuver enable the identification of difficult airway. The aim of this study was to associate the modified Mallampati test and the jaw-thrust maneuver with laryngoscopy (Cormack-Lehane) in an attempt to identif...