Objective and Subjective Mental Workload During Direct and Indirect Laryngoscopy in Anesthetists: an In-vivo, Cross-over Randomized Study

Intubation and laryngoscopy are the most demanding procedure in anesthesiological routine clinical practice, associated with high workload. The measurement and management of workload is considered important in anesthesiology to prevent work-related stress and errors in performance. New devices, thanks to advances in technology, seem promising in reducing operators' workload and improving safety and success of intubation processes.

Therefore, in this study, based on previous results, the hypothesis that the Glidescope videolaryngoscope reduces operators' perceived and and objective workload, as compared to the standard Mcintosh laryngoscope, will be tested.

Expert anesthetists will perform 3 intubations per device in a randomized order, while completing a secondary task, during which reaction times (verbal responses) to an auditory stimulus (a clacson) will be recorded, and operators will complete a questionnaire (the NASA-Task Load Index) to evaluate their perceived workload at the end of each procedure.