orotracheal intubation

For infants and young children, orotracheal intubation is easier than the nasotracheal route.

The Macintosh blade remains to this day the most widely used laryngoscope blade for orotracheal intubation.

A tube is inserted through the nose (nasotracheal intubation) or mouth (orotracheal intubation) and advanced into the trachea.

In 1858, Bouchut developed a new technique for non-surgical orotracheal intubation to bypass obstruction of the larynx resulting from a diphtheria-related pseudomembrane.

In March 1878, Wilhelm Hack of Freiburg published a paper describing the use of non-surgical orotracheal intubation in the removal of vocal cord polyps.

Another important contribution by Macewen to modern surgery was the technique of endotracheal anaesthesia with the help of orotracheal intubation, which he described in 1880, and still in use today.

The lighted stylet is a device that employs the principle of transillumination to facilitate blind orotracheal intubation (an intubation technique in which the laryngoscopist does not view the glottis).

Despite the greater difficulty, nasotracheal intubation route is preferable to orotracheal intubation in children undergoing intensive care and requiring prolonged intubation because this route allows a more secure fixation of the tube.

In 1880, Scottish surgeon William Macewen (1848-1924) reported on his use of orotracheal intubation as an alternative to tracheotomy to allow a patient with glottic edema to breathe, as well as in the setting of general anesthesia with chloroform.

In November of that year, he published another study, this time on the use of orotracheal intubation to secure the airway of a patient with acute glottic edema, progressively introducing sizes 3 through 11 of "Schrotter's graduated triangular vulcanite bougies" into the larynx.

The purpose of this study is to determine if just-in-time training improves patient safety and operational performance of orotracheal intubation and decrease occurrences of undesired associated events and "to test the hypothesis that high fidelity simulation may enhance the training efficacy and patient safety in simulation settings."