Conversion of I-gel to definitive airway in a cervical immobilized manikin: Aintree intubation catheter vs long endotracheal tube

BACKGROUND: After prehospital insertion of i-gel, a popular supraglottic airway (SGA), fiberoptic-guided intubation through i-gel is often required to switch the i-gel to a definitive airway for anticipated difficult airway. The Aintree intubation catheter (AIC) was developed for this purpose yet it requires many procedural steps during which maintenance of adequate ventilation is difficult. We custom-made a long endotracheal tube (LET) which may facilitate this procedure and compared the efficacy of the AIC and LET in a cervical immobilized manikin. METHODS: In this 2 × 2 crossover manikin-based trial, 20 anaesthesiologists and residents performed both methods in random order. Total intubation time, fiberoptic time, and procedure time were recorded. The ease of insertion, procedure failure rate, difficulty score, and participants’ preference were recorded. RESULTS: Total intubation time was significantly shorter for the LET than the AIC group (70.8 ± 16.4 s vs 94.0 ± 28.4 s, P = 0.001). The procedure time was significantly shorter in the LET group (51.9 ± 13.8 s vs 76.5 ± 25.4 s, P < 0.001). The ease of insertion score was lower, i.e., easier, in the AIC than the LET group (2.0 [1.0–2.75] vs 1.0 [1.0–1.0], P < 0.001). Fiberoptic time (19.0 ± 6.9 s vs 17.5 ± 12.3 s) and subjective difficulty (4.0 [3.0–6.0] vs 4.0 [3.0–5.75]) were similar between groups. Fourteen participants preferred the LET method (70%) due to its fewer procedural steps. CONCLUSIONS: LET resulted in a shorter intubation time than the AIC during fiberoptic-guided intubation through the i-gel, possibly due to the less procedural steps compared to AIC. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03645174 (ClinicalTrials.gov, Aug 22, 2018).