4 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Tracheal intubation in the NICU is frequently complicated by severe oxygen desaturation. Apneic oxygenation, a method of applying free flowing oxygen via nasal cannula to apneic patients undergoing intubation, prevents or delays oxygen desaturation during intubation in adults and older children. We propose to enroll patients at two sites (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) in a randomized trial in infants undergoing intubation in the NICU to determine if apneic oxygenation, compared with no respiratory support or oxygen during laryngoscopy and intubation attempts (standard care), reduces the magnitude of oxygen desaturation during tracheal intubation encounters.
The purpose of this study is to compare three different standard of care methods of double-lumen endobronchial tube (DLT) placement in patients who are scheduled to have thoracic surgery in which lung isolation is required.
Current methods for endotracheal intubation in the presence of cervical spine (c-spine) instability are not evidence-based. This is so because the relationships between the forces applied during intubation (by the laryngoscope) and the resulting c-spine movement have not yet been quantitatively characterized. As a result, with the current level of knowledge, it is not known, and it is not possible to predict, which types of c-spine instability have the greatest risk of cervical spinal cord injury with intubation. This shortcoming makes it impossible to know which intubation devices and techniques are likely to be safest in the presence of c-spine instability. To address this critical lack of knowledge, the overarching purpose of the proposed research is to: 1) quantitatively relate c-spine movement that results from the forces applied to the peri-airway tissues during intubation (force-motion relationships), and 2) use these data to develop a mathematical model of the c-spine that will predict which types of c-spine instability result in the greatest amount of abnormal c-spine motion and associated spinal cord compression during intubation. This clinical study will utilize laryngoscope blades that are instrumented with a high resolution pressure mapping system to make high-resolution measurements of the forces and pressures of intubation while making simultaneous measurements of c-spine motion. In this study, study subjects will be intubated using both a conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope and an alternative (Airtraq) laryngoscope. By using two different laryngoscopes, we, the investigators, will introduce forces of differing magnitudes and distributions to peri-airway tissues. The Airtraq does not require a direct line of sight to visualize the vocal cords, and among the various new alternative laryngoscopes it is the only one that has been shown to result in 30-50% less cervical motion than a conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope. Accordingly, we hypothesize 1) 30-50% less force will be applied with the Airtraq laryngoscope than with the conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope and 2) 30-50% less c-spine motion will occur with the Airtraq. By studying (intubating) each subject twice, any differences in the c-spine force-motion relationships between devices will be due to the devices themselves. By studying each subject twice, we can account for (and eliminate) differences among study subjects in c-spine biomechanical properties.
The purpose of the study is to test a novel endotracheal tube support device that reduces pressure of the tube on the voice box for prevention of post intubation laryngeal symptoms including sore throat, change in voice and trouble swallowing.