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The esophageal-tracheal Combitube has gained wide acceptance as an airway device in the prehospital setting. Learning how to use the device is easy, and it provides effective ventilation in a high percentage of patients. However, its use has been associated infrequently with serious complications, such as esophageal rupture. This report is based on 10 years of experience with the Combitube in a Canadian emergency medical services system that uses it as the only airway adjunct beyond bag-mask ventilation.
The authors retrospectively reviewed the records of all 282 patients who had a Combitube inserted during the study period and survived at least 12 hours after arrival at the emergency department (the authors suspected that complications woul…