Suctioning of the left bronchial tree in critically ill patients.

When suctioning patients with either a tracheostomy or endotracheal tube, the incidence of entry into the left main stem bronchus was recored at the time of routine AP chest examinations in an ICU. The success rate was 8% with an endotracheal tube and 25% when a tracheostomy tube was present; this was lower than has been reported by others. It could reflect the small size of the series or a more accurate picture.