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The amount of force applied to upper airway soft tissues during direct and video laryngoscopy has not been compared in live patients. In this study, 24 healthy elective surgery patients underwent laryngoscopy with both a Macintosh and GlideScope laryngoscope, in random order, and were then intubated with the second device. Sensors were attached to the laryngoscope blades to measure the force applied to the tongue base during laryngoscopy and intubation by anesthesiologists and residents who had performed >25 GlideScope intubations. Patients with poor dentition, symptomatic reflux, asthma, cervical spine instability, unstable hypertension, coronary artery disease, or cerebrovascular disease were excluded.
The study was stopped when interim an…