[A clinical evaluation of blind orotracheal intubation using Trachlight in 511 patients]

We used Trachlight for blind orotracheal intubation (ordinary tracheal tube or Portex Blueline in 305 cases, and reinforced tube or Mallinckrodt Safety-Flex in 206 cases) for general anesthetic procedures, and evaluated its technical features along with related complications. With ordinary tubes, 93% of the patients could be intubated successfully at the first attempt. Unsuccessful intubation even at the third attempt occurred in 3 patients (1%). One patient was complicated with a long epiglottis and the cause was unknown in the other patients. With reinforced tubes, 83% of the patients could be intubated at the first attempt but 8 patients (4%) could not. Of them, four patients received too large reinforced tubes straightening the bending of the stylet. Each of the three patients had a narrow larynx, mandibular retraction or obese neck making transillumination difficult. In the remaining one patient, the cause was unknown. Complication found in 30% of the patients was sore throat that seemed severer than that caused by laryngoscope. One patient developed minor tracheal bleeding probably due to injury of the mucosa. The elevation of the blood pressure at intubation with this device was not as high as that by direct laryngoscopy. We conclude that Trachlight leads to intubation with a high success rate, and that care should be taken not to damage the tracheal mucosa by blind insertion.