Does King Vision® Videolaryngoscope Reduce Cervical Spine Motion During Endotracheal Intubation? A Cross-over Study.

Extensive cervical spines movement during endotracheal intubation can result in serious neurological injury, especially in the patients with unrecognized cervical spines injury.[1-2] Moreover, direct laryngoscopy may be difficult if spine movement is limited because of arthritis, disc disease or a small gap between the occiput and the spinous process of the atlas.[3-4]

Video laryngoscopes allow for intubation without alignment of the oral, pharyngeal, and tracheal axes which minimize the cervical movements, especially in the patients with restricted cervical movements. [5,6] Compared with the Macintosh laryngoscope, the use of AirWay Scope decreases median upper cervical-spine movement during intubation under in-line stabilization in patients with normal cervical-spine. [6] Unfortunately, the use video laryngoscopes are associated with longer times to tracheal intubation compared with the traditional techniques which may be attributed to the variable learning curves of the practitioners. [7-9]

The King Vision video laryngoscope® (King Systems Company, a division of Consort Medical, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) is an anatomically shaped, rigid laryngoscope that uses fiberoptic technology to view the larynx with micro camera offers a 160 degree of view potentially eliminating the need for neck flexion and head extension. [10]

To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no study has evaluated the King vision laryngoscope regarding the neck movement during routine tracheal intubation under general anesthesia.