Effect of Standard Laryngoscopy Versus Video-laryngoscopy

Critical anesthetic incidents in the operating room are often related to airway management. Difficult airway management is defined as the clinical situation in which an anesthesiologist with conventional training has difficulty with upper airway face mask ventilation, difficulty with tracheal intubation, or both. Airway management has undergone a major transformation since the development of hyper-angle videolaryngoscopy (VL). Recently, the ProVuTM video stylet (Flexicare Medical Ltd, Mountain Ash, UK), which combines visualization technology with a tube guidance system, has been proposed as a new device for endotracheal intubation in participants with difficult airway management.

The investigators hypothesized that the ProVuTM video stylet combined with videolaryngoscopy or standard laryngoscopy may improve the success rate of intubation on the first attempt compared with using a videolaryngoscope alone in patientes with predicted difficult intubation. In fact, using ProVuTM the position of the video stylet tip can be adjusted continuously during the tracheal intubation maneuver.