BACKGROUND Plastic single-use laryngoscope blades are inexpensive and carry a lower risk of infection compared with metal reusable blades, but their efficiency during rapid sequence induction remains a matter of debate. The authors therefore compared plastic and metal blades during rapid sequence induction in a prospective randomized trial. METHODS Two hundred eighty-four adult patients under...

INTRODUCTION In critically ill patients, re-intubation is common and may be a high-risk procedure. Anticipating a difficult airway and identifying high-risk patients can allow time for life-saving preparation. Unfortunately, prospective studies have not compared the difficulty or complication rates associated with reintubation in this population. METHODS We performed a secondary analysis of a...

BACKGROUND During McGrath videolaryngoscope (VL) intubation, a styletted endotracheal tube maintaining an upward distal tip angle is recommended by some manufacturers. However, a styletted endotracheal tube can elicit rare but potentially serious complications. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that a nonstyletted tube with exaggerated curvature would be noninferior to a styletted tu...

We aimed to study the feasibility of a comfortable and secure intubation achieved with the Disposcope endoscope or Macintosh laryngoscope when glottis viewing is difficult. Forty adults scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia, in whom glottis viewing was difficult with the Macintosh laryngoscope (classified as Cormack-Lehane Grade III or IV), were randomized into 2 groups (N = 2...

D-blade is a relatively new device in the field of videolaryngoscopy, designed for airway management by enabling indirectoscopic glottic view. In our study, we investigated efficiency of D-blade in comparison with direct Macintosh laryngoscope (gold standard). Fifty-two adult patients with normal airway scheduled for elective surgery in general anesthesia were randomly assigned in D-blade video...

BACKGROUND In trauma patients intubated in a physician-led pre-hospital trauma service we prospectively examined the rate of misplaced tracheal tubes, the presence and nature of gross airway contamination, and the value of 'quick look' airway assessment to identify patients with subsequent difficult laryngoscopy. METHODS Patients requiring pre-hospital intubation in a 16 month period were inc...

Accurate gender classification is useful in speech and speaker recognition as well as speech emotion classification, because a better performance has been reported when separate acoustic models are employed for males and females. Gender classification is also apparent in face recognition, video summarization, human-robot interaction, etc. Although gender classification is rather mature in a...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Safe airway management is the cornerstone of contemporary anaesthesia practice, and difficult intubation (DI) remains a major cause of anaesthetic morbidity and mortality. The surgical category, particularly cardiac surgery as a risk factor for DI has not been studied extensively. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis whether cardiac surgical patients are at incre...