Basic evaluation of intubation device based on detection of respiratory flow

Abstract

Intubation, one of airway management, is an important procedure in surgical treatments. Recently video laryngoscopes are used for improving the view of anesthesiologists. However, anesthesiologists still have difficulties: in some cases such as morbid obesity and micrognathia, and the condition of the vision blocked by blood. Here we propose an intubation device which estimates the direction of trachea by detecting respiratory flow. We developed a prototype of intubation device and did a proof-of-principle experiment with a trachea model.