Assessment of endotracheal intubation procedures following inadvertent esophageal intubation. A randomized crossover manikin trial.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the success, degree of difficulty and completion time of endotracheal intubation without removing the endotracheal tube in the event of an oesophageal intubation.. METHODS: The prospective, randomised crossover study was conducted at Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, from July 1, 2018, to August 31, 2018, and used a manikin model. Endotracheal intubation was performed using Miller, Macintosh blades and a video laryngoscope. The procedures were randomised into two groups, with group E+ being subjected to it while an endotracheal tube ETT was placed in the oesophagus (E+) simulating the oesophageal intubation, and control group E- getting the standard procedure without the endotracheal tube in the oesophagus. All methods were evaluated for their success, completion time, and degree of difficulty. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS: There were 120 manikins, with 60(50%) in each of the two groups. The mean completion time with Miller in E+ group was 19.05±9.65 and for E- it was 17.55±11.95 seconds. With Macintosh, E+ had a mean completion time of 19.85±12.66 seconds and E- had 16.75±8.66. With video laryngoscope, E+ group had a mean completion time of 16.75±8.66 seconds, while E- had it 14.60±8.17. No significant difference was found in the paired group comparisons in terms of the degree of task difficulty (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In case of inadvertent oesophageal intubation condition, leaving the tube in the oesophagus and performing subsequent endotracheal intubation attempts was not found to decrease the rate of success regardless of the laryngoscope type.