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Bronchial electrocardiography to determine left or right main bronchial placement of an endotracheal suction catheter tip

Intensive Care Medicine volume 19, pages 96–98 (1993)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

To assess the utility of a blue lined angle tiped and electrode tipped catheter, to guide left and right main bronchus cannulation.

Design

A prospective study

Setting

An 11-bed general intensive care unit in a 900-bed teaching hospital.

Patients

50 intubated intensive care patients, in sinus rhythm with normal P and QRS mean frontal axis, who required endobronchial suctioning for routine respiratory management.

Interventions

Endobronchial electrocardiography was used to position a blue lined angle tiped and electrode tiped suction catheter into the right and left main bronchi.

Results

Selective cannulation of the left main bronchi was determined by observing a biphasic or inverted P wave in 42 patients, or biphasic or inverted QRS complex in 31 patients. In 8 patients in whom no changes in the ECG were found, bronchoscopic placement of an ECG electrode into the left main bronchus demonstrated a biphasic or inverted P wave in 8 patients and a biphasic QRS complex in 3 patients, confirming the failure to cannulate the left main bronchus in these 8 patients.

Conclusions

Using a blue lined, angle tipped and electrode tipped catheter for endotracheal suctioning, endobronchial electrocardiography may be a simple method to signal left or right main bronchus cannulation.

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Affiliations

  1. Intensive Care Consultant, Intensive Care Unit, Flinders Medical Centre, 5042, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia

    L. I. G. Worthley

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  1. L. I. G. Worthley
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Worthley, L.I.G. Bronchial electrocardiography to determine left or right main bronchial placement of an endotracheal suction catheter tip. Intensive Care Med 19, 96–98 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01708369

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01708369

Key words

  • Tracheobronchial suctioning
  • Bronchial electrocardiograph