Foley catheter used as bronchial blocker for one lung ventilation in a patient with tracheostomy--a case report

Anesthesia with one-lung ventilation is a good anesthetic technique for patients receiving thoracotomy in various underlying diseases. One lung ventilation can be achieved successfully by the application of a double-lumen endotracheal tube through the oral route. However, there are several situations such as low body weight, young age, difficult intubation, anatomic anomaly, and tamponading endobronchial bleeding in some adult patients, etc., in which lung separation by a double-lumen endotracheal tube may be relatively contraindicated because insertion is either difficult or dangerous. Bronchial blocker with a Fogarty embolectomy catheter has been used successfully for such situations. Here, we reported the clinical experience in using the Foley catheter as the bronchial blocker in a patient with tracheostomy.