Abstract Background and Aims: Ambu ® AuraGain™ (AAG) can act as an intubation conduit by controlling soft-tissue collapse and helping in direct visualisation of the glottis with the fibre-optic scope. One previous study has evaluated the use of AAG as a conduit for blind intubation as well as for fibre-optic-guided tracheal intubation in manikin only. Hence, this study was designed with the aim to evaluate AAG for tracheal intubation with or without the use of fibre-optic guidance in patients undergoing surgery in general anaesthesia, with the hypothesis that fibre-optic intubation through AAG will take lesser time as it will be done under direct visualisation. Materials and Methods: It was randomised controlled study. Patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status II/III, patients of either gender, age 18–60 years and mouth opening of 3 finger breadths were included. The primary objective was to evaluate the time taken for successful tracheal intubation with or without fibre-optic guidance through AAG. The Mann–Whitney U -test and Pearson Chi-square/Fisher’s test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean time for successful tracheal intubation with fibre-optic guidance was 105.5 ± 31.85 s and without fibre-optic guidance was 19.75 ± 5.36 s, which was statistically significant, P < 0.001. Conclusion: Our study concludes that AAG can be used as a conduit for both fibre-optic-guided and non-guided endotracheal intubation.
Rautela et al. (Wed,) studied this question.