Laryngoscope plastic blades in scheduled general anesthesia patients: a comparative randomized study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To compare two brands of disposable plastic laryngoscope blades, Vital View plastic blades and Heine XP plastic blades, with the reusable Heine Classic+ Macintosh metal blades.

DESIGN

Prospective randomized, controlled, single-blinded study.

SETTING

Operating room of a university-affiliated hospital.

PATIENTS

519 patients without criteria for predicted difficult intubation, undergoing scheduled surgery during general anesthesia.

INTERVENTIONS

Patients were randomized to three groups according to laryngoscope blade brand.

MEASUREMENTS

Difficult tracheal intubation was evaluated by the Intubation Difficulty Scale (IDS) (IDS > 5 = procedure involving moderate to major difficulty).

MAIN RESULTS

The percentage of intubations with an IDS > 5 was 3.1% in Group M (metal blade group), 5.1% in Group V (Vital View plastic blade group), and 10.0% in Group H (Heine plastic blade group). A significant difference was noted between Groups M and H (P = 0.02) but not between Groups M and V.

CONCLUSIONS

Intubation may be more challenging when using Heine XP plastic blades but no significant difference exists between Vital-View plastic blades and Heine Classic+ metal blades.