Sir,—I read with interest the article entitled "Trachea! rupture after tracheal intubation" by Regragui, Fagan and Natrajan [1]. The authors described the anaesthetic management of a patient with a distal tracheal tear. The trachea was intubated initially with an 8-mm tracheal rube under bronchoscopic guidance with the distal end of the tube above the tracheal tear. After right rhoracotomy was ...

airway morbidity Editor—We read the interesting article by Seo and colleagues about the study comparing two techniques of double-lumen endobronchial intubation. We have a few queries. First, the authors have not mentioned if any lubrication or softening technique was used to prepare the double-lumen tube (DLT) before placement to prevent airway morbidity. Secondly, the authors have not mentione...

Functional separation of the lungs may be accomplished by several methods. Patient with restricted mouth opening has limited options for one-lung ventilation. We report the use of wire-guided endobronchial blockade, a new tool for achieving one-lung ventilation in a patient with restricted mouth opening requiring nasotracheal, fiberoptic intubation for esophagectomy and reconstruction with gast...

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...

Endobronchial stent placement is a novel therapy for treatment of iatrogenic tracheal tears. A review of the available literature shows surgery and long-term intubation being the established treatment strategy. We describe the case of a 64-year-old woman with a tracheal rupture following endotracheal intubation for routine surgery. Pneumo-mediastinum and chest pain were the predominant symptoms...

One-lung ventilation is routinely used to facilitate exposure for thoracic surgical procedures and can be achieved via several lung isolation techniques. The optimal method for lung isolation depends on a number of factors that include (1) the indication for lung isolation, (2) anatomic features of the upper and lower airway, (3) availability of equipment and devices, and (4) the anesthesiologi...

Independent lung ventilation (ILV) can be classified into anatomical and physiological lung separation. It requires either endobronchial blockade or double-lumen endotracheal tube intubation. Endobronchial blockade or selective double-lumen tube ventilation may necessitate temporary one lung ventilation. Anatomical lung separation isolates a diseased lung from contaminating the non-diseased lun...