Intubation

Today, I intubated my first (human) patient. I used a MacIntosh laryngoscope to displace the epiglottis so that I could insert a breathing tube down a patient's windpipe (trachea) so that she could be comfortably anesthetized during a surgery to remove her thyroid. The anesthesiologist had let me insert the plastic tube twice on other patients while he held the blade. He then let me do #3 from start to finish. #4, however, was not so successful. The patient's short chin and other factors made for a difficult process. At least I got one!


And let me say, my experience ventilating mice was not of much use as preparation. (I've probably intubated 750 rodents.) In the case of the mouse procedure, a cotton swab is the laryngoscope and a 10-100 piece of beveled tubing is the endotracheal tube. Evaluation of proper intubation (visualizing vocal cords, seeing fog on the inside of the tube and symmetric chest inflation) is however the same...

I can usually put patients at ease when I sew up their cuts if I say I've lots of practice stitching mice. Based on today, neither anesthsiologist nor patient will learn of my previous 'experience' with rodent intubation...