Comparison of lightwand intubation technique in neck-immobilized patients with face-to-face and conventional approaches

Abstract

The lightwand is a valuable device for managing the airways of patients with neck immobilization due to its ease of minimal neck movement. For lightwand intubation, adopting a face-to-face technique offers the potential for improved accessibility and reduced risk of injury associated with blind scooping maneuvers. In this study, we compared the initial success rate of the face-to-face approach with the conventional method as the primary endpoint and their complications as the second endpoint, including postoperative sore throat, the incidence of bleeding and hoarseness in neckimmobilized patients. Our findings indicate that the initial success rate was 84.1% for the face-to-face approach and 88.6% for the conventional approach (p = 0.381). The intubation times for the face-to-face approach and conventional approach were 12.0 and 14.0 seconds, respectively (p = 0.704). Furthermore, there were no statistically significant inter-group differences observed in the overall incidence of postoperative complications, including sore throat, bleeding and hoarseness. In summary, our study shows that the face-to-face approach in lightwand intubation for neck-immobilized patients could be suggested as one of the alternatives, yielding outcomes similar to the conventional lightwand technique.