Improved blind tracheal intubation in rats: a simple and secure approach

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Medicine
• Surgical Techniques
• Animal Research Models

Background:

• Tracheal intubation is crucial for open-chest models in research.
• Intubation in small animals like rats presents anatomical challenges.
• Existing methods may be complex or invasive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the safety and reliability of an improved blind endotracheal intubation technique in rats.
• To compare this method with transillumination and incision intubation techniques.
• To assess feasibility, difficulty, and complications associated with each method.

Main Methods:

• Rats were divided into three groups: improved blind intubation (gesture fixation), transillumination intubation, and incision intubation.
• Key metrics included operation completion time, number of attempts, success rate, and complications.
• Histopathological analysis assessed endometrial damage.

Main Results:

• Improved blind intubation was significantly faster (35.00 ± 9.86 sec) than transillumination (57.12 ± 6.54 sec) and incision (184.33 ± 25.49 sec) groups (P≤0.001).
• The improved blind group required fewer attempts than the transillumination group (P=0.001).
• Success rates were comparable across all groups (93.3% vs. 80.0% vs. 86.7%), with no significant differences in difficulty, complications, or endometrial damage.

Conclusions:

• Improved blind endotracheal intubation is a simple, effective, and safe technique for rats.
• It offers comparable outcomes to more complex or invasive methods.
• This method provides a reliable approach for rat tracheal intubation in research settings.