Objective:

To evaluate the performance of a modified industrial videolaryngoscope, in patients with airway complex and normal, to determine the number of retries and the time of intubation.

Method:

We designed a comparative observational, analytical, with sampling non-probability. Studied 73 patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia, requiring intubation of the trachea, in a period of three months. The sample was divided into a group considered as airway complex (VAC), with 15 patients which was integrated by patients Mallampati III or later Patil-Aldrete II or greater and Bellhouse-Doré II or greater. A second group with 58 patients, considered by air standard (VAE), i.e. without apparent complexity data. All of the patients were intubated with the proposed videolaryngoscope.

Results:

The time required for intubation for the VAC group was 33.33 ± 14 seconds. While the time required for intubation of the VAE was 27.6 ± 9.12 seconds (P = 0.16). The number of attempts to achieve the intubation was 1.2 ± 0.41 for the VAC group, and 1.13 ± 0.33 for the VAE group. The vision of the glottis to the VAC group was 68.33% and 87.95% for the VAE group, (P = 0.002).

Conclusions:

The adaptation of a camera for industrial use to a conventional laryngoscope blade allowed endotracheal intubation effective in patients with suggestive clinical data of complex airway and those with airway clinically considered as normal.