New Video and Optical Laryngoscopes Beat the Macintosh

Several optical and video-based laryngoscopes have recently become available. The notable advantage of these new devices over direct laryngoscopy is that they do not require alignment of the oral and laryngeal axes in such a way as to create a straight line of sight to the vocal cords. In a simulator-based trial, researchers conducted a head-to-head comparison of three of the most popular devices (the McGrath, Airtraq, and GlideScope) with the Macintosh laryngoscope.

Sixty anesthesia providers (faculty, residents, and nurses) who had experience with Macintosh direct laryngoscopy but not with video or optical scopes received individualized training in use of the devices, followed by five practice intubation attempts with each device on a simu…