Minimizing trauma to the upper airway: a ferret model of neonatal intubation

Our objective was to determine whether an adult ferret can be intubated as many as 10 times per training session without resulting in trauma to the upper airway. In this program, 8 male ferrets rotated through intubation laboratories, limiting the use of each animal to once every 3 mo. Animals were examined by the veterinary staff after intubations to assess for trauma to upper airway tissue. Each examination was given a trauma grade of 0 for no visible signs of trauma, 1 if erythema of the larynx was present, 2 if visible excoriation of the mucus membranes was present, and 3 if bleeding (frank hemorrhage) was observed. The number of intubation attempts was restricted to 10 per animal per training session. A total of 170 intubations were completed on the ferrets during a 12-mo period. The average number of intubations per laboratory was 8.1 intubations per ferret. In addition, 1.8% of the intubations resulted in erythema (score, 1) after training, and 0.6% of the intubations resulted in excoriation (score, 2). Frank hemorrhage (score, 3) was not noted. The overall percentage of intubations resulting in any trauma during a training session was 0.02%. None of the animals have experienced any major complications to date. This ongoing training program has been used to teach neonatal intubation skills to emergency medicine residents for the past 12 mo. Ensuring the health and safety of the ferrets was paramount. Our results suggest that as many as 10 intubation attempts per session can be performed safely on each ferret without causing excessive trauma.