ENDOTRACHEAL INTUBATION BY INTUBATING LARYNGEAL MASK AIRWAY (FASTRACH™) -ALONE OR ASSISTED BY VIDEO ENDOSCOPE (FIVE™) – A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

The prime responsibility and aim of any anesthesiologist is the maintenance of airway. From the

time endotracheal intubation was introduced, undue problems have occurred due to failed

ventilation and tracheal intubation. Many studies have proved that airway mismanagement

occurs in most cases due to lack of proper expertise and equipments.

The ILMA was considered as the “gold standard†among the

supraglottic airway devices when it was initially released for use. It has showed a high success

rate for blind or fibreoptic-guided tracheal intubation in patients with both expected and

unexpected difficult airways. Another objective of use of ILMA was to eliminate the need to

distort the anterior pharyngeal anatomy in order to visualize the laryngeal inlet, making the device

applicable to patients with a history of difficult intubation and a high or anterior larynx.

There are number of studies comparing ILMA with other supraglottic airway devices with respect

to obtundation of pressor response, ease of intubation and time taken for intubation. But there is

paucity of studies comparing blind intubation with ILMA and intubation with further aided by

use of video endoscopes. Hence present study is planned to compare the ease of intubation

between intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA) alone and that with flexible intubating video

endoscope (FIVE).