A Comparative Evaluation of Pressure Response in Conventional Nasal Vs Fiber Optic Bronchoscopic Endotracheal Intubation Techniques in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Endotracheal Intubation Techniques in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the present study was to compare the blood pressure response between conventional nasal and flexible fiber optic techniques. Subjects and Methods: After taking approval of the hospital ethical committee on research, 60 consenting adult patients, of either sex, of ASA physical status 1 and 2, coming for oral and maxillofacial surgery were included in the study. These patients were randomly divided into two groups of 30 patients, each for either conventional nasal endotracheal intubation (Group A) or nasal intubation using flexible fiber optic bronchoscope (Group B). Results: When mean arterial pressure (MAP) was compared between both the groups, we found that at 1 minute after intubation, the increase in MAP was more in group B (fiber optic bronchoscope group), which was significant. Also time taken for intubation with fiber optic technique was significantly more than conventional nasal intubation. Conclusions: From our study, we concluded that fiber optic bronchoscopy provides no advantage over conventional laryngoscopy, in terms of decreasing the pressure response to nasotracheal intubation. However, fiber optic intubation remains gold standard technique for difficult airway.