Effectiveness Of Computed Tomography-Guided Nasotracheal Intubation Procedure On Predicting Tube Advancement Difficulty And Preventing Epistaxis: A Prospective Case-Control Study

Objectives

To evaluate the effectiveness of computed tomography-guided nasotracheal intubation procedure in predicting tube advancement difficulty and preventing epistaxis.

METHODS

The prospective study was conducted at Erciyes University Faculty of Dentistry from April 2018 to June 2019 and comprised maxillofacial surgery patients of either gender aged 18-50 years who were due to undergo bimaxillary orthognathic surgery, which was defined as American Society of Anaesthesiology grade I or II. The space where the tube was to be passed in the internal nasal valve region was measured horizontally and vertically using computed tomography. A single experienced anaesthesiologists intubated all the patients who were later divided into 'easy' group A and 'difficult' group B on the basis of the effort required to advance the tube through the nasal passage. Data was analysed using JASP version 0.14.1.0).

RESULTS

Of the 60 patients, 42(70%) were females and 18(30%) were males. The overall mean age was 29.0±10.5 years and the mean body mass index value was 23.6±4.0 kg/m 2 (p>0.05). There were 28(46.6%) patients in group A, and 32(53.3%) in group B. Median distances were significantly shorter and epistaxis was significantly higher in group B compared to group A (p<0.001). The cut-off values to reveal the distance at which difficulty may be experienced while advancing the tube, determined through receiver operating characteristic analysis, were 1.09 cm for vertical and 0.39cm for horizontal distances.

CONCLUSIONS

The nasotracheal intubation procedure under the guidance of computed tomography could help predict the difficulty of tube advancement, and could thus prevent epistaxis and other related nasal intubation complications. Clinical trial number: NCT05525754.

Does a Nasal Airway Facilitate Nasotracheal Intubation or Not? A Prospective, Randomized, and Controlled Study

PURPOSE

Nasotracheal intubation (NTI) is generally preferred for maxillofacial surgery to provide a more suitable and wide surgery area for the surgeons. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether using a nasal airway just before the NTI may facilitate NTI or not.

METHODS

This prospective, randomized, and controlled study was performed on patients who were admitted to our hospital for maxillofacial surgery. In group 1, a nasal airway was used just before the NTI during mask ventilation, and patients in the group were ventilated without nasal airway. Airway group was the primary predictor of the study. The NTI duration was the primary outcome variable, and the number of attempts was the secondary outcome variable. Difficulty of ventilation and complications were the other variables that were recorded.

RESULTS

A total of 70 patients were included in the study and divided into 2 groups. There was no statistically significant relationship between the duration of NTI and other variables, but the significance value for sternomental distance, ventilation difficulty, and epistaxis was P < .10. The NTI duration (the primary outcome variable) and the number of attempts (the secondary outcome variable) are statistically lower in the nasal airway group (group 1) than the control group (group 2). Ventilation difficulty was significantly higher in group 2 when compared with group 1 (P = .04). The model and regression coefficients for both variables are statistically significant in terms of duration of NTI and number of attempt values that they were lower in nasal airway group than the control group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of complications (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study has shown that inserting a nasal airway into the nostril just before the NTI may facilitate the intubation process by preparing the nasal passage.