Satyabrata Guru1, Neha Singh2, Sangeeta Sahoo1, Upendra Hansda1, Chittaranjan Mohanty1

1Department of Trauma and Emergency, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
2Department of Anaesthesiology, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019, intubation, King Vision video laryngoscope, Macintosh laryngoscope, manikin

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) virus usually spreads through aerosol and close contact. Frontline health care workers handle aerosol generating procedures like endotracheal intubation. To reduce this risk, COVID 19 barrier box came into the picture. However, the COVID 19 barrier box may compromise easy and successful intubation, and their limitation must be studied.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the time to successful intubation with or without the COVID 19 barrier box using the Macintosh laryngoscope and King Vision video laryngoscope (KVVL). We also assessed the first pass success rate, ease of intubation, Cormack– Lehane (CL) grade, and requirement of external laryngeal manipulation.

METHODS: We conducted this manikin based randomized crossover study to assess the time to successful intubation by anesthesiologists (22) and emergency physicians (11) having 1 year or more experience with or without COVID 19 barrier box by using the Macintosh laryngoscope and KVVL. Our study randomized the sequence of the four different intubation scenarios.

RESULTS: The comparison of mean duration of intubation between KVVL (13.21 ± 4.05 s) and Macintosh laryngoscope (12.89 ± 4.28 s) with COVID 19 barrier box was not statistically significant (95% confidence interval: 1.21–0.97). The ease of intubation, number of attempts, and requirement of external laryngeal manipulation were not statistically significant. Intubations were statistically significant more difficult with barrier box in view of higher CL grade.

CONCLUSION: Time to intubation was longer with COVID 19 barrier box using KVVL as compared to Macintosh laryngoscope which was statistically not significant.

How to cite this article: Guru S, Singh N, Sahoo S, Hansda U, Mohanty C. Comparison of endotracheal intubation with Macintosh versus King Vision video laryngoscope using coronavirus disease 2019 barrier box on manikins: A randomized crossover study. Turk J Emerg Med 2022;22:149-55.

Ethics Committee Approval

This protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, IEC NO‑T/IM‑NF/T&EM/20/39 dated November 12, 2020.

Author Contributions

SS: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; methodology; project administration; resources; supervision; validation; writing – review and editing. NS: data curation; investigation; methodology; visualization; writing – original draft: data curation; investigation; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. UH: data curation; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. CM: methodology; data curation; investigation; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. SG: methodology; data curation; investigation; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing.

Conflict of Interest

None Declared.

Financial Disclosure

None.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research– Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, for designing the COVID barrier box.