Tube First Technique as a Conduit for Easy and Fast Firberoptic Intubation

Difficult intubation is one of the most significant issues anesthesiologists deal with, occasionally. Among these, mandibulofacial deformities face the biggest challenge in intubation and make an anticipated difficult airway (1), due to short length of mandible (HLM), short thyromental distance (TMD), short inter horizontal -incisors gap (IIG) and high grade modified Mallampati test (MMT) (2).

There are several strategies to approach these patients and each technique has unique benefits that should be used on experience. Sitting endotracheal intubation is a useful technique for airway control, in patients with difficult airway or in patients in whom maintenance of the upright posture is beneficial (3), A difficult airway is defined as difficulty with facemask ventilation, difficulty with tracheal intubation, or both (3). According to new updates on difficult airway management, by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, there are non-invasive and invasive interventions for the management of difficult airway. Non-invasive interventions include, without being limited to: awake intubation, video-assisted laryngoscopy, intubating stylets or tube-changers, supraglottic airway (SGA) for ventilation (e.g., LMA, laryngeal tube), SGA for intubation (e.g., ILMA), rigid laryngoscopic blades of variousdesign and size, fiberoptic-guided intubation, and lighted stylets or light wands, while invasive interventions include surgical or percutaneous airway, jet ventilation and retrograde intubation (4).

Attaching a nasal airway to a breathing circuit as a tool to assist or control ventilation is a very helpful trick to have in challenging airway management situations.

Typically, Fiberoptic bronchoscope is passed through the more patent nostril to follow the major nasal pathway at the floor of the nose along the superior aspect of the hard palate, the lateral aspect of the nasal septum inferior to the lower turbinate to reach the nasopharynx where the operator identifies the pharyngeal structures, such as the base of the tongue and/or the epiglottis that are mostly "in-fall" precluding clear views of the larynx requiring a jaw thrust to visualize the laryngeal structures for patients planned to be intubated under general anesthesia [5,6].