Direct Versus Video Laryngoscopy for Foreign Body Removal

A cadaver study with novice operators shows a higher success rate with the direct laryngoscope.

Video-assisted laryngoscopes have revolutionized difficult and routine airway management. These authors compared the GlideScope and the standard Macintosh laryngoscope for removal of a hypopharyngeal foreign body.

Twenty-eight second-year emergency medicine residents with minimal experience in foreign body extraction were recruited from an airway management course in Korea and given several hours of training and practice with the devices. Each participant then used both the GlideScope and the Macintosh laryngoscope with Magill and ring forceps, in random order, to remove a piece of sausage placed just above the vocal cords of a lightly embalmed (i.e., lifelike) cadaver. Overall, the foreign body was removed successfully in 63% of GlideScope …

Reviewing Author

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education