An inexpensive homemade balloon cuff for endotracheal tubes.

In 1893, Maydl’ conceived of a plan for introducing an anesthetic through a tracheal tube; and Eisenmenger’ added an inflatable cuff around the distal end of the tube. However nothing was done with these ideas for over a quarter of a century. In 1924, Waters2 described the “carbon-dioxide absorption” method of anesthesia, and four years later Waters and Guedel3 published an article on the “Intratracheal Catheter” in which they described a cuff to be made either by cementing a piece of rubber sheeting around the catheter or by a double layer of rubber slipped tightly over the tube. We have constructed a rugged cuff with material found in and around the hospital at the cost of only a few pennies.