I'm generally sceptical of gadgets that claim to make difficult intubations easy. Recently, however, we were given a demonstration of the LMA CTrach and it looks very impressive.
It is essentially a LMA-Fastrach with a fibreoptic attachment and a self-contained screen attached for visuallising the cords and making what used to be a blind intubation now a visually-guided one.
A couple of pics to illustrate:
(https://www.gasbag.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lma.de%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2F1_375_YRj4MRd3Jq-250x.jpg&hash=18b69ef30ebd82b490ea41959ddbbe369ed0350e) (https://www.gasbag.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lma.de%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2F1_378_ee0UOCVrMh-250x.jpg&hash=b174a6a560496f27f010b62d9bc867bc37a08c89)
Has anyone had the opportunity to use one "in anger" so to speak? And was it useful?
Cheers
Rob
Does the screen separate from the LMA part or is it attached permanently? And if it separates, is it easy to attach? I'm thinking: Difficult airway, manage to get LMA in, squeak a bit of O2 in, patient borderline oxygenated, then have lots of trouble attaching the screen and alignining the connections properly to get a good view to intubate. May be mroe trouble than its worth.
The screen is separate. When you insert it, it is identical to a Fastrach LMA. You then attatch the screen which has a very nifty magnetic locater - it just locks on and the connection (and image) is ready in an instant.
Its very slick.
Hey, this is going to put us out of business! Anyone will be able to intubate the difficult airway!
There seems to be very little information about this anywhere. Even the LMA company website does not mention it. Is it just a prototype or is it in production?
Looks very impressive. Where can I get one?
More information could be found at www.lmaco.com
Click on the eyes at the left on your screen. :)
We had one to play with for week (on loan) and it is every bit as good as it looks. It is a very simple matter to assemble and requires very little change in LMA etchnique. The intubation is still a bit of a fiddle, but with practice, becomes easy.
This is an excellent piece of equipment! I have utilized it on many occasions and find it user friendly, intuitive setup, and easy to troubleshoot. I wish it could take snapshots for me for better documentation. My suggestion for use: be very careful, methodical where you place the ETT connector when inserting the ETT via stabilization rod, its embarassing to misplace it.