Abstract
Introduction
Airway management in patient with restricted mouth opening is a great challenge, owing to the difficulty in laryngoscopy and visualisation of the vocal cords during the procedure of intubation. The term retrograde intubation refers to a technique in which a guide wire is passed into the trachea and then into the mouth or nose. A tracheal tube is then passed down over the guide until it enters the trachea.
Material and method
A retrospective audit was undertaken to determine the success and complication associated with retrograde intubation.
Results
The results show that in a sample of 20 patients in which retrograde intubation was done, only three developed sore throat and cough, one had bronchospasm and one developed infection at the site of insertion of a J-tipped catheter.
Conclusion
Retrograde tracheal intubation was easy to perform and had a high success rate and a low incidence of complications.
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Bhola, N., Jadhav, A., Borle, R. et al. Awake endotracheal retrograde intubation in restricted mouth opening: a ‘J’-tipped guide wire technique—a retrospective study. Oral Maxillofac Surg 18, 393–396 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10006-013-0419-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10006-013-0419-0