Viable oxygenation with cannula-over-needle cricothyrotomy for asphyxial airway occlusion.

attempts. – 6 Secondly, in our study, the use of the Airtraq reduced intubation difficulty as assessed by other endpoints, including reduced number of optimization manoeuvres, improved Cormack and Lehane glottic view, increased percentage of glottis opening scores, and reduced user-rated visual analogue scale device difficulty compared with both the C-MAC and Macintosh laryngoscopes. Thirdly, any deficiencies of the IDS score that would advantage indirect laryngoscopes such as the Airtraq would also be similarly advantageous to the C-MAC. Clearly, this did not happen, and the IDS did differentiate between these indirect laryngoscopes. Lastly, in our study, if the component of the IDS score relating to the glottic view is excluded, the IDS score is still higher in patients who underwent tracheal intubation with the C-MAC and Macintosh laryngoscopes (Table 1). For these reasons, we have confidence regarding the utility of the IDS score in our study. Accordingly, we contend that the conclusions of our study, namely that intubation performance of the Airtraq laryngoscope is better than those of the C-MAC and Macintosh laryngoscopes in patients with cervical spine immobilization, are sound and are supported by the findings of the study.