title: Preliminary case series report: use of the laryngeal mask airway Fastrach oral endotracheal tube with the Bullard laryngoscope.
abstract: Use of the Bullard laryngoscope has been fraught with difficulties, especially for inexperienced users who often end up placing the instrument on the back shelf of the airway cart without further use. A recent hypothesis suggests that the use of a flexible tip tube on the Bullard stylet might facilitate intubation. Initially, the Fastrach laryngeal mask airway (LMA North America, Inc, San Diego, California) flexible tip endotracheal tube was loaded on the Bullard laryngoscope stylet (Circon ACMI, Stamford, Connecticut) and used for intubation. The ease of intubation was noteworthy. Intubations on 6 patients assessed as difficult to intubate were performed on the first attempt without any difficulty. In fact, the effortlessness of these potentially difficult intubations led to the conclusion that the preliminary finding should be reported immediately.
authors.affiliation: Summit Surgical, Hutchinson, Kansas, USA. sandmanken@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Spain
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D004867:Equipment Design; D004868:Equipment Failure; D004869:Equipment Safety; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing; D017214:Laryngeal Masks / Q000592:standards; D020704:Laryngoscopes / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009719:Nurse Anesthetists; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors