How Does the Flex-It Stylet Perform in GlideScope Laryngoscopy?

Time to intubation was faster with a malleable stylet than with the Flex-It stylet.

The GlideScope video laryngoscope consistently provides an excellent glottic view, but advancing the endotracheal tube can be challenging because of the sharp angulation of the blade. To overcome this difficulty, use of a properly shaped stylet is imperative. In a prior study, no difference in performance was reported between a manually shaped stylet and a commercially available rigid GlideScope-specific stylet (JW Emerg Med Dec 7 2007). Researchers in Canada compared performance of the commercially available Flex-It stylet — a plastic device with a mechanism that allows continuous adjustment of the curvature of the endotracheal tube — with a malleable stylet that was bent at a 90° angle 8 cm from the distal end of the endotracheal tube.

Eig…

Reviewing Authors

Emily L. Brown, MD

Ron M. Walls, MD, FRCPC, FAAEM

Disclosures

Speaker's bureauAirway Management Education Center, LLC

EquityAirway Management Education Center, LLC

Grant / Research supportAgency for Health Care Research and Quality

Editorial boardsManual of Emergency Airway Management; Rosen's Emergency Medicine; UpToDate; Scientific American Medicine