Comparison of Airtraq and Macintosh laryngoscope for Easy and Difficult Endotracheal Intubation in Adults

Abstract

Introduction- Direct laryngoscopy and orotracheal intubation are essentially done using one of the curved or straight blade laryngoscopes. Most common curved blade laryngoscope is the Macintosh blade, which is the gold standard for tracheal intubation since 1940’s. The Airtraq (Prodol, Meditec, Vizcaya, Spain) is a novel optical indirect laryngoscope designed to facilitate tracheal intubation in patients with both normal and difficult upper airway anatomy. This study is conducted to compare the conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope with newer Airtraq laryngoscope to assess ease and time taken for intubation, complications encountered in the form of dental clicks and lip lacerations.
Materials and Methods- Patients were randomly allocated in two groups, comprising 60 patients each, group I (Macintosh).and group II (Airtraq). On the basis of airway assessment study groups was divided into easy and difficult airway categories. After induction of general anesthesia, tracheal intubation was attempted with the Airtraq or the Macintosh laryngoscope asper group. Primary end points were overall success rate of tracheal intubation and data was analysed in SPSS 19.0 using chi-square test , unpaired t test.
Results- In present study it was observed that time taken for successful intubation was significantly less (p=<0.001) in airtraq group (14.73 +2.50 sec) and (20.10+1.85sec) as compared to macintosh group in easy and difficult airway category. Intubation difficulty score was found to be significantly lower in airtraq group as compared to airtraq group in both airway categories. Cormack Lehane scale was found to significantly lower in airtraq group as compared to macintosh group in both airway categories.