TITLE:
A Comparison of the Best Place to Fix Endotracheal Tubes for Men and Women When Men and Women Are in the Same Height
AUTHORS:
Shahram Nafisi, Mehdi Rajabi, Mohammad Afshar, Morteza Rashidian, Mitra Mohammadzadeh
KEYWORDS:
Intubation, Endotracheal Tube, General Anesthesia, Height, Cuffed
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Anesthesiology,
Vol.4 No.7,
July
14,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Background: Comparison
of the tracheal tube depth over the same body height of men and women based
upon intubation depth markings. Methods: Kashan University of Medical Sciences
ethics committee approved the study and written informed consent was taken for
each patient. Patients undergoing surgery requiring general anesthesia with
oro-tracheal intubation were included in a prospective observational study. After
induction of general anesthesia, the endotracheal tube was secured at the point
at which the cuff was just below the vocal cord on laryngoscopy. Results: In a
statistical study of 682 intubated patients which consisted of 499 women and
183 men, 28 cases of laryngoscopic view grade III and IV were excluded from the
study. The measurement markings on the ETT at the level of right corner of the
mouth were 20.65 ± 0.13 and 18.52 ± 0.08 for men and women respectively (CI
95%). Patient’s height has a meaningful correlation with the measurement of the
fixation point of the ETT. Pearson correlation coefficient between the securing
point of the tube and height was 0.2 and 0.357 for men and women respectively.
In most cases of men and women of the same height, Mann-Whitney U test rejected
the hypothesis that the tube can be fixed in the particular point. Conclusions:
In general, men are taller than women. Comparing the fixation depth of the
tube, even when man and woman have the same body height, the endotracheal tube
might be placed in a deeper level for men rather than women.