Techie Tuesday has returned!! Well, at least for today. We recently acquired a new piece of equipment that will enable us to be faster and more successful when securing an airway. Often, when we need to help someone to breath we would insert a tube into their throats using a technique called laryngoscopy. The old laryngoscope was placed into a persons mouth and forced tissues aside to allow us to directly visualise the vocal cords, also called direct laryngoscopy. Once we could see the cords we would insert the tube through the vocal cords to rest just above the lungs. No matter how careful we are, this invariably causes some injury to the patient, including cuts to the tongue, tonsils, and other tissues in the throat. Sometimes damage to the teeth or expensive dental work would occur. The resulting blood would make this procedure even more difficult because wed have to suction out the area before we could see. Other complications with laryngoscopy is that a large percentage of the population is difficult to perform this procedure on. Large people, small people, small mouths, and many injuries are just a few of these complications that place our patients at risk for unsuccessful intubation. The video laryngoscope allows us to insert a miniature video camera into the patients mouth and work around the tissues in the mouth and throat rather than force them aside to be able to see the vocal cords. This results in less trauma to our patients and more success in our initial attempt. This reduces the risk of low oxygen levels our patients. The video laryngoscope also has the ability to photograph or make a video record of the procedure for review afterwards. The first image shows just how much manipulation of the head, neck, and mouth were needed to be able to see the landmarks required to complete an intubation using direct laryngoscopy. The second image shows how little movement is requred for video laryngoscopy. The final image shows what our new video laryngoscope looks like. Cost per video laryngoscope, $3,200.00 Potential profit from this investment? Greater success with less risk of injury to our patients.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:50:11 +0000
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