6 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
General anesthesia is a treatment with medicine to make a patient unconscious for surgery. This is sometimes called "being put to sleep" or "being put under." Most of the time, a breathing tube is used to help a machine breathe for patients. The breathing tube has a cuff, which is like a small balloon. After the breathing tube is placed, the cuff is inflated. This keeps the breathing tube in place and keeps fluids like saliva and stomach juices from getting into the windpipe and lungs. When a breathing tube is removed, that is called extubation. Normally, doctors deflate the cuff before removing the breathing tube. This is called deflated cuff extubation. Some doctors worry that keeping the cuff inflated while it is removed can damage the throat or vocal cords. However, some doctors keep the cuff inflated when removing the breathing tube. This is called inflated cuff extubation. These doctors think that keeping the cuff inflated can help keep fluids from entering the airway. Doctors have not studied if deflated cuff extubation is better or worse than inflated cuff extubation. The goal of this study is to see which type of extubation is better at keeping fluids from getting in the airway. Participants who are part of this study will get general anesthesia and have surgery as planned. Near the end of surgery, a small amount of liquid is placed at the back of a participant's mouth. This liquid is called contrast material, and it is like a dye. The contrast material will help determine if any liquid enters the windpipe or lungs. Then, contrast material is removed, along with any other fluids, using normal methods. When it is safe to take the breathing tube out, a deflated cuff extubation or an inflated cuff extubation will be performed. This decision will be made at random, like by the flip of a coin. Information will be collected about participants, the surgery, and how well a participant is breathing. After surgery, a chest x-ray will be taken to see if any of the contrast material is in the windpipe or lungs. Otherwise, everything else after surgery would be normal. 24 to 48 hours after surgery, a member of the research team will ask about any symptoms a participant may have, like sore throat or a hoarse voice. Research would conclude at that time.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the in-vivo efficacy of a novel device (endOclear) for cleaning the endotracheal tube (ETT) lumen from secretions. The investigators hypothesize that a protocol of routine ETT cleaning with endOclear may increase the ETT luminal volume measured at extubation compared to the current standard of care. The device may therefore be clinically useful by better maintaining the ETT original function.
Integrated pulmonary index (IPI) is a tool that monitors respiratory status. It takes into account four parameters: respiratory rate, end-tidal CO2, heart rate and O2 saturation using a pulse oximeter and specialized sidestream CO2 monitor. The device can continuously monitor and display the patient's ventilatory state as a single digit, 1-10. In addition, trends can be kept and it can provide early indication of changes in respiratory status. IPI has only been studied in pediatric patients who are under sedation; however, more uses for the monitoring tool are a possibility. One of those possibilities is to use IPI to monitor pediatric patients during the weaning and extubation process to determine if a specific number, or less than a specific number, is associated with extubation failure. Therefore, clinicians and physicians would be better able to determine if the patient is ready for extubation.
The purpose of this study is to measure secretion accumulation within endotracheal tubes of mechanically ventilated patients and test the efficacy, safety and clinical impact of removing the secretions using novel airway management catheters (Complete Airway Management Catheters: CAM Rescue Cath and CAM Endotrach Cath).
1. An intact pharyngoesophageal reflex is essential to protect the upper airway from aspiration of either mouth contents or regurgitated gastric refluxate. This reflex is essential at protecting the airway in all patients. 2. In patients, while under medication to tolerate endotracheal intubation, it is postulated that an identifiable upper esophageal sphincter and esophageal peristalsis are not present. 3. With the cessation of anesthetics, accompanied by the reversal of nerve block, normal pharyngoesophageal peristaltic activity correlates with awakening the patient from anesthesia. This would be identified by the performance of esophageal manometry. 4. A return of normal verbally stimulated pharyngoesophageal swallowing sequence accurately identifies a safe time to remove endotracheal tubes and/or reverse anesthesia. This verbally stimulated swallowing sequence correlated precisely with the return of objective pharyngoesophageal function.
The goal of this study is to learn more about voice and airway problems that patients experience during and after the time patients have an oral endotracheal tube in patients' airway to help patients breathe while receiving mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit (ICU).